At least have a national background check before allowing the person to buy a gun, and yes, that includes private sales and gun shows.

Your argument that criminals don't follow laws therefore we should not enact those laws is outright idiotic. Imagine if we applied that to all other laws. "Everyone speeds anyhow, so why post speed limits and have cops waste their time giving out tickets?" hey, the free market will sort out those who can drive from those who can't right?

I realize we repealed the 18th Amendment because everyone was breaking the law anyhow, but that does not mean it's OK to turn all of the country into the wild west just because a few wackos want to have more guns than people.

How long until there's a great game for mobile devices which is a 3-D rendered mystery with puzzles to figure out an an errie, Mysty world to explore.... Ohh, can't wait!

Oh my god, I never thought I'd ever hear those words coming out of my own mouth. As someone who suffered through Windows 3.1 (reboot to change the number of colors on screen!) I'd long held fantasies of gunning down Bill Gates. I considered MS to be the root of all evil.

But now they they aren't really the top dog, and now that they seem to be struggling, and now that Google has proven that their motto is "do evil", I gotta say, MS ain't so bad anymore. Sure they make mistakes, and sure their software is utter crap, but you know what; if they are making a Youtube App that let's you save and comes with an ad blocker, I'm all for it.

Go MS! I'm with you! (oh my god I feel dirty now somehow).

So since William Randolph Hearst demonized Hemp and forever tied to to Pot, it's been illegal to grow in the USA. You do realize that in most of the free world, you can walk into a grocery store and still buy products made from Coca leaf?

And yet in the "land of the free" almost everything is banned. Except guns. And you need those in case the government "takes away your rights". I hope you see the tremendous irony there.

See if it's available on Netflix or something, but go watch a movie called "Tucker" -- it's the (mostly) true story about a guy with a lot of good ideas about making a good car, who started up right after WWII -- and the Big Three colluded with government to put the guy out of business.

50 Tucker Torpedos were built before the factory was shuttered, and of that number about 43 survive to this day -- he built a great car (i.e, mousetrap), but the world wasn't able to beat a path to his door before he was forced to close.

Frankly, I'm surprised that Musk has been able to survive this long, and Big Oil just hasn't shut him down. Of course, Big Oil owns most of the battery tech, and the Big Three aren't quite the powerhouses they used to be, plus Musk is starting out with enough cash to buy his own Senators, and I'm sure he's not as naive as Preston Tucker was.. So perhaps Tesla has a chance.

Terminator: "Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range."
Shopkeeper: "hey, just what you see here pal..."
Terminator: "Uzi nine millimeter."
Shopkeeper: "You really know your guns. This baby's perfect for home defense..."

So... as long as the government comes after dissidents, one at a time, it's OK. As long as your rights are taken away, one at a time, it's OK. As long as you are oppressed SLOWLY, that's fine. Face it. America is sheeple. No one is ever going to take up arms against the government, and if someone does, he's easily dismissed as a kook by the media, and killed in a hail of gunfire and we all cheer on TV that we've been "saved" from this guy by the long arm of oppression.

People keep claiming that they want to keep their guns because they need to protect themselves if their rights are taken away by the government...

HELLO???? At what point do you start defending yourselves? Your rights are being slowly stripped away and have been over the course of the last 30 years, and nobody does anything?

Even when the Stormtroopers are patrolling the streets, and curfew after dark is in place and people are afraid to speak against the government, or talk on their phones, with your neighbors turning each other in for 'treason'... you'll all still be sitting on your guns waiting for the government to take away your rights.

There's quite a few typos in this interview. Did the editors READ it, or did they just cut-n-paste into the "post" form? Can anyone advise what differentiates Slashdot from an amateur's blog?

The "congresspeople" prattling on about how it's "unfair" to brick & mortar stores should shove it. How about when you buy something that's not a tangible product, like an MP3 from the iTunes store?

Meanwhile, trillions of dollars of transactions happen every day in the stock market, and NONE OF THAT IS TAXED.

So, just so we're clear: middle-class == screwed by paying more taxes when they buy stuff online; rich investors == even more rich 'cause they don't really pay taxes of any sort anyhow, then complain bitterly if their income (via investments) is taxed at 15% while the rest of us pay 30% because we actually work for a living.

Seriously; screw them all. Perhaps it's time to enforce our second amendment rights. No taxation without representation.

And believe me, we (the 99%) are NOT represented by the government.

GE paid zero corporate income taxes. ZERO. On a company that continuously reports record profits. They "offshore" most of their money so they don't even have to pay taxes on the interest they earn. Exxon Mobil plays the same games, but they're in an even better position because they receive subsidies from the government, so their taxes are actually negative (the government gives them money), on top of their record profits.

My guess is that the larger online retailers will have to start playing these games as well. Amazon for sure, will probably charge us (the buyer) taxes, and then offshore the income, so that those taxes never get to the states they should.

Therefore, Amazon will actually get more income from every product sold, and that money will go right into Bezo's pocket. Because he has lawyers and accountants to make that money vanish into his mansion(s), without ever reporting it to the government.

And if not, it's fairly easy to buy a few senators and congressmen and make the problem go away.

So, if Republicans supported this bill, and they signed Grover's tax pledge, is Grover going to go after these people come the next election? Or is Grover going to look they other way, since this doesn't affect the elite and large corporations?

But the American people are sheeple. As long as you continue to feed them their daily dose of Honey Boo Boo and American I-Dull, they will continue to scream "Yeah. Murica Number One!", go about their dull lives and take whatever crap to elite feel they can continue to crush them with.

And if any Americans do start to rise up, the government will have an act of "terrorism" to keep the people frightened of the boogeyman, and tell them to duct tape their windows and doors and we'll all comply.

Unfortunately; America is bunch of whiney, spineless do-nothings who've had it easy for so long, they can't even see they're being squeezed into slavery and servitude to the elite.

But hey, you made your bed. Now sleep in it.

Trying so hard to still be relevant.

He's trying hard to sell Balmer's terrible mistakes. Bill, I hope your money still isn't tied up in Microsoft Stock, as in 10 years it's gonna be over for you.

I can create documents on my phone. It's called a bluetooth keyboard and you can get one on Amazon for as little as $20 for a Chinese apple knock-off. (So cheap, I keep one at home, and one at work, so I don't have to carry the keyboard, just my phone).

Bill, you're smoking crack and you've missed the boat again.

And meantime, 50 years later, Moller is exactly NOWHERE.
The dude's concepts have been on the cover of Popular Mechanics since... what... 1972? And he has yet to even sell one flying car.