Others insist its not guns, its 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 weeks shooting at a high school in florida was the 18th School Shooting in the us so far this year, and its only february. Thats 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 its 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 pas 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. Hes a local firearms lawyer who has represented the nra in pennsylvania. Shira, youre 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 theres a lot of steps we could take. So, this young man, clearly troubled, he bought a gun. Its a semiautomatic 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, im 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 havent 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, hes represented the nra in pennsylvania. Hes a firearms attorney. Heres 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 cant properly be laid at the feet of the lawabiding 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 dontwe stigmatize it. We dont give the same funding towards it. And people dont 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 theres one of these shootings is just a red herring. Thiswe have a gun problem. What is the single thing that unites all of these shootings in schools . A gun, usually a semiautomatic rifle that somebody got who shouldnt have one. So, theyre multifaceted problems, but jonathan and the nra and the gun lobby always want to say nothing would have prevented this particular shooting, not one thing. Its 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 dont know when jonathan decided its 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. Weve had about 36 days of school, so i dont think thats 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 theres 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 its hard work, right . So, they dont want to make the compromises. They dont 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, its helpless. And they hope that, you know, well be sad for a few days and then move onto something else. Thats 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, everybodys excited about them. I was online trying to buy a tshirt. 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 whos online buying ammunition. We can tell whos stockpiling rifles, and we dont do anything about it. It doesnt trigger anything. You know, the shooter in las vegas had dozens of rifles. It didnt 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 doesnt. Even the Supreme Court said its not an absolute right. Its 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 weve been talking to, hes a firearms attorney, hes represented the nra as i mentioned, i did ask him about that very issue. Take a listen to my question and his response. Rosemary isnt it the nra, isnt 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 theres 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 isnt about the nra. This tragedy is about properly resourcing our police. Its about properly resourcing our Law Enforcement community. Its about properly resourcing prosecutors and Mental Health professionals so that when a person like this bubbles up through the system and makes it knownhe said on a youtube comment, im going to be a professional school shooter. You couldnt ask for a clearer indication that somebody from Law Enforcement or Mental Health ought to have come into contact with this guy. Thats not about the nra. Shira i think that most gun owners, legal gun owners, are responsible. Nobody is in favor of kids dying, right . Nobodys in favor of that, but i dont think that the nra actually represents all of those cardcarrying 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 actuallymajorities of them support things like background checks for all gun sales. So, i think that what we really need, and its 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, theyre 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, its 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 whats coming through to ceasefire pa via social media and email, and the calls were 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, thats five years ago. I work with some of those parents. I know that todayyou know, today, theyre grieving. And some of them are probably going to florida to be with these other families because theyre 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. Were not willing to sacrifice 93 people a day. Were not willing to keep having these Mass Shootings. I saw a tweet that said in the last 20 years, theres been 18 Mass Shootings all across the rest of the world. Weve had 18 in schools in the last 45 days. Its unacceptable. Its 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. Thats all this is. And it doesnt 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 dont get easy access. Right now, the laws are over and underinclusive. 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 theyre 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, its shameful. We should all be ashamed. We all have blood on our hands that this is not an issue that were taking to the voting booths, that were 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, youre in the minority, even as some experts say its the future of money. In just a few moments, we break it down in simple terms we can all understand. Dont go away. If our world isnt stuck in the past, why is Higher Education . We say, if theres a better path, you should take it. And when there isnt, well, you know where im going with that. Dont do things by the book if the book cant keep up. Take your page from one that hasnt been written. We took two renowned universities, including a premiere medical school, and created a Single University that defies convention. At jefferson, were making modern look old and making old look new and making sure new is not enough. Were adding more weight to your degrees and more meaning to your careers, going where others wouldnt dare, making connections few think to make, and setting tomorrows standards by breaking todays, because we believe the lines that are drawn are meant to be crossed. Thats where the future is born. And once you realize youre not limited to whats 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 dont learn about this new form of money, you could be making a big mistake. We begin with the bitcoin basics from msnbcs stefanie ruhle. Stefanie ruhle bitcoin is like your debit card. Its 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. Thats 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 cant hand it to a cashier at the store. It doesnt 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 youre paying accepts it. One difference, though. When you use dollars to make a purchase, if you arent 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 well start with you. So, the bitcoin. I mean, should people be getting onboard here . Whats the deal . Jim lee my sense is that its going to be around in some way, shape, or form for awhile. Id say in the immediate term, its not so much too early, but maybe getting a little late at this point. The real money has already been made, mmhmm. 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, its nobody has broken it, so it seems to be working. I think the underlying technology, blockchain technology, is what im bullish on personally. Its kind of like the internet and email. Bitcoin is the email of blockchain. Its 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. Its 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 ofi mean, which is what it is, half of what it was a month ago. So, its 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 whats up and whats down . Jim amazing volatility. I mean, im 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, ive 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 its a personal, taxable account. Whereas you would not be able to have that deduction if its within an ira. Rosemary what do we need to be watching out for . Whats 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. Theyll 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 thats in a bank, its fdic insured. I mean, if yourif a scammer or a hacker gets your bitcoin, its 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, its gone. Rosemary all right, so jim, will people embrace cryptocurrency more, less . I mean, what do you see happening . Jim you know, its really on a case by case basis. In japan, for example, bitcoin is completely legal. In china, theyve had bitcoin for awhile. Theyre really started to slow down the availability of that platform. In the us, were sort of in this wild west stage. Its a frontier investment. Theres little or no oversight at this point, but its 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. Well discuss how Online Dating could be changing. Who we choose as our partners, that plus the new dos and donts of Online Dating. In the state with more ski mountains than any other, family fun reaches a new peak. So whether youre a speed demon or more of a snow angel, your winter chariot awaits. Pick the best peak for your family getaway at iloveny. Com new york state. Its all here. Its only here. 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, interreligious, 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 its working now is that when you meet someone online, its typically a stranger. You have no actual connection to their peer group, so its 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 dont 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, theyre writing what they would want to hear. They put in all this extraneous detail, things that dont really matter. And theyre 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 thats the first thing. I think the second thing is that people dont do their homework. Theyre not prepared going into it. I think theres 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 im 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 youre looking for, and you can be more pointed in how you write for that audience. And i think the third thing is that people thinkthey say, i dont want to play games. People say this all the time. I talk to a lot of people and they say, i dont want to play games. I just want to be authentic. But what they dont realize is that by just winging it, theyre actually not necessarily being authentic and serving what their goals actually are. And by being prepared, theyre actually able to fulfill those goals. Because its a game whether you play it or not. Its 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. Dont 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 well be right back. Announcer this is nbc10 issue. Rosemary thats it for this edition of nbc10 issue. Dont forget, tomorrow is president s day. If youre looking for a way to celebrate, you can try testing your president ial knowledge at the National Liberty museum in old city. Their president ial trivial contest begins at 1 oclock in the afternoon tomorrow. Im rosemary connors. Have a great sunday. Near 50th. A former Madison Square garden with that distinctive marquee. Then they moved down 8th avenue near 33rd. The first game in the new place was 50 years ago today against a new team from philadelphia. Inside that 50yearold is the fliers. Now player in the league has more assists about to