will the massacre in florida be the tipping point to turn edge. the tide on gun violence? we talk to both sides of the gun control debate. bitcoin, is it a get rich quick scheme, or the legitimate future of currency? today, local experts help to explain this new form of money, how it works, and why it's in your best interest to find out. online love, surprising new facts about modern dating, how it's changing the makeup of american couples. plus, tips for staying safe and standing out online. male: "nbc10@issue" starts now. rosemary: good morning, i'm rosemary connors for "nbc10@issue." what will it take to stop gun violence, especially in our schools? that's the question many in our area are asking after this past week's massacre at a high school in florida. some contend it's about controlling guns.

others insist it's not guns, it's about treating mental illness. one thing is clear, the number of innocent young people being gunned down inside their schools is growing, with no end in sight. new data shows school shootings are becoming more and more common. according to the group every town for gun safety, last week's shooting at a high school in florida was the 18th school shooting in the us so far this year, and it's only february. that's more than double the number this time last year. every town counts 291 school shootings since 2013. that averages out to about one per week. and when it comes to younger americans and gun control, a recent survey finds nearly 80% of millennials surveyed say it's too easy to buy a gun. nearly 60% of those surveyed say gun violence would decrease if gun regulations were strengthened. joining me now is shira goodman. shira is the executive director of ceasefire pa. ceasefire pa's mission is to reduce gun violence and to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.

earlier, i also spoke to jonathan goldstein via facetime. he's a local firearms lawyer who has represented the nra in pennsylvania. shira, you're with us in studio. thanks for being with us. shira goodman: thanks for having me. rosemary: so, first things first. is what happened earlier this week in florida, could it have been prevented? shira: i think a lot of these school shootings could have been prevented. and there's a lot of steps we could take. so, this young man, clearly troubled, he bought a gun. it's a semi-automatic rifle, high capacity magazines. those things were banned for a time in this country. we could more strictly regulate them. you can buy those things in pennsylvania in a private sale without a background check. so, we have an access issue. we also have the issue of, did this man get the help that he needed? why is it so much easier to buy a gun than to access mental health, than to have somebody say something? you know, just a couple weeks ago in pennsylvania, in western pennsylvania, a school shooting was averted because there was a kid on a bus who said,

"i'm going to shoot up the school." another kid told his parents, who called the school, who called police. they took a cache of weapons from his room, and now that child and his mother are both facing charges. so, there are always ways to prevent it. the problem is our elected officials in harrisburg and washington haven't had the will to do the hard work. rosemary: you bring up mental health as part of this conversation. as i mentioned, we spoke to jonathan goldstein, the local attorney. you know him well, he's represented the nra in pennsylvania. he's a firearms attorney. here's his take on that part of this discussion. jonathan goldstein: the fbi was notified that this guy was a threat. he posted a comment to a youtube video a number of months ago saying, "i am going to be a professional school shooter." the kids at his school were terrified of him. the people in his community were terrified of him. he was known to be a threatening, and menacing, and weird guy with a fascination with violence. this can't properly be laid at the feet of the law-abiding gun owner. this has to be laid at the feet of the people that saw and

received all the signals that this guy was a dangerous person, and did nothing about it. shira: we do not treat mental health the same way as we treat physical health, right? we don't--we stigmatize it. we don't give the same funding towards it. and people don't get the treatment that they need. but the mentally ill are much less likely to commit violence and to be victims of it. so, to say this is all a mental health problem every time there's one of these shootings is just a red herring. this--we have a gun problem. what is the single thing that unites all of these shootings in schools? a gun, usually a semi-automatic rifle that somebody got who shouldn't have one. so, they're multi-faceted problems, but jonathan and the nra and the gun lobby always want to say nothing would have prevented this particular shooting, not one thing. it's a whole mess of things that we could put together, and layer together, and close loopholes, and work on these problems. and we could do it. i don't know when jonathan decided it's okay to lose 93 people a day, or have a school shooting every other day,

which is really what the 18 and 45 days of the calendar comes out to. we've had about 36 days of school, so i don't think that's okay. and i think we need to do something about it, and i think we can. rosemary: you bring up our lawmakers in pennsylvania, and harrisburg, and washington, obviously our lawmakers around the region. and you say there's tough work to be done, and the question is, will they do it? what kind of work are you talking about? shira: well, first of all, we send those people to harrisburg and washington to work for us. we elect them. nobody makes them do it. they run for office, they raise money, they try and do it. and the reason is to solve these tough problems. but it's hard work, right? so, they don't want to make the compromises. they don't want to work across the aisle. they want to listen to the lobbyists who give them a lot of money. and they throw up their hands and say, "it's helpless." and they hope that, you know, we'll be sad for a few days and then move onto something else. that's the cycle that has benefited the nra, and the gun lobby, and the politicians they support. like look, think about the eagles, right? they were here, you know, everybody's excited about them. i was online trying to buy a t-shirt.

every time i go online now, i get eagles gear ads. when you go to the store to renew a sudafed prescription, bells and whistles go off. we can tell who's online buying ammunition. we can tell who's stockpiling rifles, and we don't do anything about it. it doesn't trigger anything. you know, the shooter in las vegas had dozens of rifles. it didn't trigger anything. you know those records are somewhere. when did we decide that this right above all other rights, this right to bear a gun, to own a gun, took precedence over everything else? it doesn't. even the supreme court said it's not an absolute right. it's like our other constitutional rights, and we need to start regulating it like that. rosemary: you bring up the gun lobby. i did ask jonathan goldstein, the local attorney we've been talking to, he's a firearms attorney, he's represented the nra as i mentioned, i did ask him about that very issue. take a listen to my question and his response. rosemary: isn't it the nra, isn't it the influence of the nra, the money that the nra donates to our lawmakers, that is prohibiting them, stopping them from moving forward with any kind of proactive gun legislation?

jonathan: there's no reason to impugn the five of six million members of the nra and their commitment to reducing gun violence, their commitment to gun safety. every community in america this weekend is going to have an nra member somewhere in that community teaching gun safety, teaching people how to use firearms safety. this tragedy isn't about the nra. this tragedy is about properly resourcing our police. it's about properly resourcing our law enforcement community. it's about properly resourcing prosecutors and mental health professionals so that when a person like this bubbles up through the system and makes it known--he said on a youtube comment, "i'm going to be a professional school shooter." you couldn't ask for a clearer indication that somebody from law enforcement or mental health ought to have come into contact with this guy. that's not about the nra. shira: i think that most gun owners, legal gun owners, are responsible.

nobody is in favor of kids dying, right? nobody's in favor of that, but i don't think that the nra actually represents all of those card-carrying members anymore. i think they represent the gun manufacturers, who they got lots of money from. and the goal is to sell more guns. so, i think there is common ground to be had with legal gun owners. even nra members, when you survey them, they actually--majorities of them support things like background checks for all gun sales. so, i think that what we really need, and it's so hard, is to break down those barriers and have people, you know, having these discussions. when jonathan and i are in the same room, they're very reasonable conversations. we come from a different place, but i think if we spent more time like that to harrisburg and washington, really demanded that of our leaders, talking to each other, listening, working on the hard stuff, we could do this. rosemary: on some level, you have to ask, is the country becoming numb to it? are we getting used to it? is this a new, disturbing norm? or are we getting toward a tipping point,

where there may be some kind of a change, whatever that change is going to look like? and presumably, it's got to be bipartisan. shira: it actually has to be bipartisan. i think that we cannot let this become normal. we cannot become numb to this. we should be horrified, and outraged, and angry when we see this. and i see, you know, through social media and through what's coming through to ceasefire pa via social media and email, and the calls we're getting, there is this outrage. there are some people who are saying, you know, "i never did anything before, but i want to do it now," very similar to what we saw after sandy hook. now, that's five years ago. i work with some of those parents. i know that today--you know, today, they're grieving. and some of them are probably going to florida to be with these other families because they're upset that after losing their own children, they were not able to protect other families from this. we have to say as a nation, "this is not okay. we're not willing to sacrifice 93 people a day. we're not willing to keep having these mass shootings." i saw a tweet that said in the last 20 years, there's been 18 mass shootings all across the rest of the world.

we've had 18 in schools in the last 45 days. it's unacceptable. it's uniquely american. we can solve it. it is not preordained by the second amendment that we have to have these gun deaths. we accept all kinds of regulations on our rights. that's all this is. and it doesn't burden the right to have things like background checks, to say that certain kinds of weapons should be more highly regulated than other kinds, to say we need to do better about screening for mental health, and to make sure that people who are troubled don't get easy access. right now, the laws are over and under-inclusive. some people are not going to be able to get guns because of something in their mental health history who are never going to become dangerous. and there are some people who are never going to have anything in their mental health history because they never went to the doctor, and they suddenly have a personal crisis, and they have easy access to a gun. and they're going to try to kill themselves, or kill somebody else, or kill a whole lot of people. jonathan: legislatures have to start making the tough choices to properly resource the mental health needs of americans. and a failure to properly resource those needs,

a failure to properly resource sufficient prosecutorial and investigatory resources ultimately leads to greater opportunity for tragedies like this. shira: you know, how many more times do we have to witness those kids coming out of that classroom? i mean, people, we have nightmares about it. and you know, it's shameful. we should all be ashamed. we all have blood on our hands that this is not an issue that we're taking to the voting booths, that we're marching on washington, marching on harrisburg, and demanding a change now. rosemary: sheri goodman with ceasefire pa. thank you for your thoughts and your time. shira: thank you. rosemary: coming up next on "nbc10@issue," understanding cryptocurrency. if you get it, you're in the minority, even as some experts say it's the future of money. in just a few moments, we break it down in simple terms we can all understand. don't go away.

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at jefferson, we're making modern look old and making old look new and making sure new is not enough. we're adding more weight to your degrees and more meaning to your careers, going where others wouldn't dare, making connections few think to make, and setting tomorrow's standards by breaking today's, because we believe the lines that are drawn are meant to be crossed. that's where the future is born. and once you realize you're not limited to what's possible, guess what? you redefine all that will be. rosemary: not many of us, myself included, understand what bitcoins and blockchains exactly are. some experts warn, though, if you don't learn about

this new form of money, you could be making a big mistake. we begin with the bitcoin basics from msnbc's stefanie ruhle. stefanie ruhle: bitcoin is like your debit card. it's a way to pay for goods and services electronically, online and off. now, imagine if your debit card only stored its own kind of digital currency using a sophisticated encryption system. that's what bitcoin does. to get bitcoin, you can buy it or receive it in exchange for goods and services, just like traditional money. but unlike cash, you cannot hold it, and you can't hand it to a cashier at the store. it doesn't work like that. you can keep bitcoin in a digital wallet, which you can access on your computer or a smartphone. and you spend it just like you would spend any money, as long as the party you're paying accepts it. one difference, though. when you use dollars to make a purchase, if you aren't using cash, your transaction ultimately routes

through a bank or a credit card company. bitcoin cuts out the middleman and transfers funds directly from one person to the other without requiring personal information. that means the transaction is virtually anonymous. instead of a bank monitoring the activity, a massive network around the world keeps track of every transaction on a communal balance sheet. and just like other currencies, investors can buy and sell bitcoin purely to make money off the fluctuating exchange rate. more and more people these days are treating bitcoin as an investment. rosemary: joining me now are ben goodman, the founder and ceo of 4a security and compliance. ben works with clients to strengthen their cyber defenses. and jim lee. jim is the founder of stratfi, and is a professional futurist. he analyzes trends and works to determine exactly what is happening next. thank you both for being with us. ben goodman: thank you. rosemary: all right, jim, so we'll start with you. so, the bitcoin.

i mean, should people be getting onboard here? what's the deal? jim lee: my sense is that it's going to be around in some way, shape, or form for awhile. i'd say in the immediate term, it's not so much too early, but maybe getting a little late at this point. the real money has already been made, mm-hmm. rosemary: it cuts out the middleman that is the bank. so, is this a legitimate piece of currency, a legitimate transaction when you pay with bitcoin? ben: well, it does solve one of the big problems of these virtual transactions by making them, you know, verifiable. and so far, it's-- nobody has broken it, so it seems to be working. i think the underlying technology, blockchain technology, is what i'm bullish on personally. it's kind of like the internet and email. bitcoin is the email of blockchain. it's an application of this technology. and companies like ibm are into it big time for all kinds of things that are not related to the currency. but as far as the currency goes, you know, it has its benefits and drawbacks.

it's hugely volatile, which is challenging. you know, if you want to go out and buy a pair of socks, one day, you know, the value might be half of--i mean, which is what it is, half of what it was a month ago. so, it's a little challenging as a currency, i would say. rosemary: so jim, on that note, in terms of the prices rising and falling, i mean, how do you know what's up and what's down? jim: amazing volatility. i mean, i'm seeing market crashes and corrections almost every other month within the crypto space. we just had a 50% plus pullback in bitcoin since december, okay? so, in some ways, you could sort of look at it and say, you know, the opportunity of a lifetime happens every few weeks, right? so, not for the faint of heart, yeah. rosemary: no, definitely not. and anybody who is watching our traditional markets over the past few weeks and watching their 401(k)s, yeah, definitely not for the faint of heart. jim: what an amazing ride. and you know, i've been getting some questions from clients and other folks in terms of whether we should do this

within your ira. and my piece of advice is if you want to do crypto currency, keep it small, okay? i, like, make my mistakes as small as possible. so, position sizing is important. i think that if you have it in a personal account versus an ira account, if you do lose money, you will be able to have that deduction if it's a personal, taxable account. whereas you would not be able to have that deduction if it's within an ira. rosemary: what do we need to be watching out for? what's the concern here? ben: well, so obviously hacking is an everyday occurrence. and criminals are clearly following the money. and so, if they can use bitcoin for anonymous transactions, they do that for ransomware. they'll also use your computing power to mine bitcoin. but they also go after people who own bitcoin, and there have been over a billion dollars worth of coin stolen from these bitcoin exchanges.

just recently in japan with coincheck losing i think they announcer $538 million worth of coin. yeah, so you know, clearly these folks are not doing everything they need to be doing in terms of protecting your currency, your cryptocurrency. rosemary: and unlike real money that's in a bank, it's fdic insured. i mean, if your--if a scammer or a hacker gets your bitcoin, it's gone. ben: right. and even if you lose your own key. so, this is involving public and private key cryptography. and if you lose your keys, it's gone. rosemary: all right, so jim, will people embrace cryptocurrency more, less? i mean, what do you see happening? jim: you know, it's really on a case by case basis. in japan, for example, bitcoin is completely legal. in china, they've had bitcoin for awhile. they're really started to slow down the availability of that platform. in the us, we're sort of in this wild west stage. it's a frontier investment.

there's little or no oversight at this point, but it's still a gold rush. rosemary: ben goodman, the founder and ceo of 4a security and compliance, thanks for being with us. and jim lee, the founder of stratfi, thank you as well. and coming up next on "nbc10@issue," the new look of love in the us. we'll discuss how online dating could be changing. who we choose as our partners, that plus the new do's and don'ts of online dating.

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rosemary: a recent study finds online dating could be changing love and marriage. researchers discovered that couples who meet online are more likely to be interracial, inter-religious, and have different educational backgrounds than couples who meet in other ways. joining me now is jeff gibbard. jeff is the founder of hitch philly. he coaches people on how to be successful when dating online. thanks for being with us. jeff gibbard: thanks for having me. rosemary: all right, so you are familiar with this study. and how does it change the way we maybe have thought about our

relationships in terms of how we date people maybe not online? you know, maybe meeting at a bar or something. jeff: so, one of the things that the study confirmed is that online dating now is the second most popular way of meeting people in a heterosexual relationship, and in homosexual relationships by far the number one. so, the way that we typically have met before online dating is that we would meet through friends, right? there were social circles that we kind of looked on the exteriors of what we would general call-- i think those are weak ties. the way that it's working now is that when you meet someone online, it's typically a stranger. you have no actual connection to their peer group, so it's bringing together disparate areas of our society that otherwise may not have actually connected or formed possible dating. rosemary: right, so as we mentioned, you may be of a different race, different religion. you said you are living proof of the study. jeff: yeah, absolutely. love of my life is chinese. so, we may have never actually met because of our peer groups, but because of online dating, we did. rosemary: some quick tips for people who don't know how to market themselves in this-- in terms of online dating.

what would you tell them? jeff: people write profiles online for themselves, not for their audience. so, they're writing what they would want to hear. they put in all this extraneous detail, things that don't really matter. and they're writing it in a way that they would read it and go, "i really want to date this person." but you have to think about who your audience is. so, i think that's the first thing. i think the second thing is that people don't do their homework. they're not prepared going into it. i think there's this tendency to just take what comes along and see what happens. i think you have to do your planning, and sit down, and figure out, you know, what are my deal breakers? what are the things i'm really looking for? where are the people that i would filter out for one reason or another? and you have to go into it with that mindset because then you know what you're looking for, and you can be more pointed in how you write for that audience. and i think the third thing is that people think--they say, "i don't want to play games." people say this all the time. i talk to a lot of people and they say, "i don't want to play games. i just want to be authentic." but what they don't realize is that by just winging it, they're actually not necessarily being authentic and serving what their goals actually are. and by being prepared, they're actually able to fulfill those goals.

because it's a game whether you play it or not. it's still a game. rosemary: one last thing. obviously, safety always comes to mind when you talk about online dating. jeff: some of the things that i recommend, public places. if something sounds too good to be true, probably is. so, you know, just take things slowly. don't let your emotions get yourself carried away. and just take proper precautions. rosemary: all right, jeff gibbard with hitch philly, the founder of hitch philly. thank you so much for being with us, and thank you for all of your tips. jeff: absolutely. rosemary: and we'll be right back.

announcer: this is "nbc10@issue." rosemary: that's it for this edition of "nbc10@issue." don't forget, tomorrow is president's day. if you're looking for a way to celebrate, you can try testing your presidential knowledge at the national liberty museum in old city. their presidential trivial contest begins at 1 o'clock in the afternoon tomorrow. i'm rosemary connors. have a great sunday. ♪

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