>> woodruff: a california program takes guns away from those who legally bought them, but are now barred from owning them. spencer michels has our next story on stopping gun violence. >> this is an ak47 assault rifle. this is a 500 caliber revolver. all of them have been confiscated within the last six months. >> brown: can elderly patients with dementia consent to sex? we talk to bloomberg reporter bryan gruley about his series of stories. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: syrian rebels continued to wage a new northern offensive today, warning civilians off a road that serves as a crucial supply route for regime forces. here in the united states, officials reconsidered their options for how to support the rebels against syrian president bashar al-assad. >> first of all, we can't predict when assad will go. >> woodruff: at the white house today, press secretary jay carney reaffirmed the administration's position, but the syrian president is on his way out. and president obama will continue to support the opposition. >> the president's commitment will continue. he believes we need to continue to step up our assistance because of the imperative that assad not be allowed to essentially murder an entire nation. >> woodruff: talk of stepped-up assistance came after the release of a letter written by general martin dempsey, america's highest ranking military officer outlining the pentagon's options for going beyond humanitarian aid. addressed to senate armed services chair carl levin it listed five options, training, assisting and advising the opposition forces, conducted limited air and missile strikes against assad targets. to protect the borders of turkey and jordan. and using a combination of special operations forces and ground forces to take control of syria's chemical weapons stock piles. these operations could involve thousands of u.s. troops, cost billions of dollars and the use of force would constitute, quote, no less than an act of war. and he warned once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next: deeper involvement is hard to avoid. the discussion comes as the syrian conflict enters its third year with more than 93,000 people already dead. and millions of refugees in and around syria. opposition forces have lost ground over the past six months and some have wondered whether lethal support may be too great in come... too late in coming. even so, the "washington post" reported today that the house and senate intelligence committee last week approved obama administration plans to ship weapons to the rebels through the c.i.a. according to reports, those arms could get to syrian rebels in the next few weeks. for more on possible u.s. military intervention in syria, i'm joined by jeffrey white, a former senior analyst at the defense intelligence agency, now at the washington institute for near east policy. and john mearsheimer, a west point graduate and former air force officer, now a professor at the university of chicago. we thank you both, gentlemen, for being with us. jeffrey white, to you first. do you get a sense from reading this letter sent by general dempsey of what the obama administration is likely to do? >> i think we're going to see a small-scale commitment of military resources to support the rebels. nothing large, nothing too lethal. small arms and ammunition. maybe not even antitank weapons. my sense is that is a, you know, a slow movement towards a potentially greater commitment but nothing really dramatic in the way of arms. >> woodruff: small arms and ammunition. in fact, in this "washington post" story we just referenced, john mearsheimer, says that's already what's been approved. what more do you see the administration prepared to do? >> i don't think the administration is prepared to do anything else. it's very clear from general dempsey's letter that the pentagon is opposed to upping the ante in syria. it's very clear from the way president obama has been dragging his feet that he has no interest in intervening in syria either. i think this is the smart policy. we have no strategic interest in what happens in syria. it is not a vital national interest that is at stake here. furthermore, when you look at the different strategies that we might employ to try to fix this problem, it's quite clear that none of them work. most of them just make a bad situation even worse. >> woodruff: jeffrey white, how do you read these five recommendations from general dempsey? i mean ranging from very light assistance, just advising and training the rebels all the way to going in with ground forces and securing the chemical weapons. >> i think he covered, you know, pretty much what is acknowledged as the spectrum of available options. there are some nuances to some of the things he talked about that might be worth exploring. basically he laid out what it is that people have been talking about for over a year now. he stressed the down side here. the down side risks and the costs. he definitely put a negative spin on what u.s. intervention could look like, the risks, the costs, the uncertainties involved in intervention. so he definitely gave it a, you know, a "we would rather not do this" kind of a spin on it. >> woodruff: based on what you you know, do you think that the administration is close er to making a decision beyond the light arms we've been talking about. >> i don't think so. i think they're very reluctant to go with any significant military effort in syria. that's been the case for a long time. i don't think that has changed dramatically. what we see is a reluctance and a willingness in the face of a lot of pressure to make a minimal commitment. >> woodruff: john mearsheimer you said you think the administration doesn't want to get involved based on what you read here, but do you learn any more from looking at this at what they may be weighing? >> well, i think that the administration has weighed all the options. you would expect the administration to weigh all the options. when they've looked carefully at each one of them, it's become manifestly apparent that none of them can fix the problem. i think this is a situation where, if we had a magic bullet or we had a magic formula, the administration would probably go in and try to fix the problem. this is how we ended up going into iraq. most people thought that if we go into iraq with a quick and decisive victory and get out quickly. but that proved to be wrong. if you look at our track record over the past 12 years in iraq and libya and in afghanistan and even in egypt, it's hard to believe that anybody would think at this point in time that we could go in and fix the problem with syria which is at least as messy as those four other countries if not messier. >> woodruff: jeffrey white, what do you think the administration should be doing? what should the united states be doing? >> i think we shoulding doing more. i've been an advocate of, you know, serious intervention for over a year. i think we do have strategic interests at stake in syria. it's a huge country in the middle of the middle east. there's enormous humanitarian problem underway there. we see it's the playground for hezbollah and other forces opposed to the united states. so we do have interested there. we do have capabilities. to fix the problem in syria i think puts too high a standard on what can be accomplished. but we can do things to change the trajectory of the war. >> woodruff: be specific. what could be done? >> at the low end is robust indirect military intervention. that means arms, significant arms. that means training, intelligence, cooperation and help in getting them to articulate and implement a military strategy for the war. they have yet to do that. if necessary it means direct u.s. military action with our allies. >> woodruff: on the ground? not necessarily troops on the ground but we have the capability to strike effectively at the major military assets of the regime. artillery, armor, missiles, aircraft. we could do a lot to change the regime's capabilities from the outside of the country with weapons fired from off shore or by flying over the country itself. >> woodruff: john mearsheimer, is that a plan that makes sense to you? >> no. i want to make two points. first of all, there's no question as general dempsey makes clear in his letter that we have the military capability to shift the balance of power and topple assad. there's no question about that. but we cannot go in with a light footprint. we would have to go in with a lot of military force because assad is backed by iran, the russians and hezbollah. he has a lot of cards to play. he will be tough to take down. we would have to go in in a big way. that's point number one. point number two is toppling him is the easy part. the hard part comes when we have to put the country together and create a stable system so that we can get out. this is exactly the problem that we faced in iraq. there was not much difficulty knocking off saddam hussein. the military part of the story is the easy part. what comes afterwards, the political problem, that's when the trouble starts. when you look at a country like syria and you see the sent trif gal forces in play in that country you see how badly fractured the opposition groups are, it's hard to see how this story has a happy ending. >> woodruff: jeffrey white, what about this argument that it's one thing, it's do-able to topple assad militarily but after it gets much more complicated? >> sure. it's messy. syria is incredibly complex, difficult problem to analyze, to fix, to do anything about. i acknowledge all of those things. but here's the other side of that story. if we don't do anything, what are we going to get? if we don't get ourselves involved we're going to get a situation where the regime either fights on against the rebels for a long time. more people die and more disruption, more iranian influence, more hezbollah influence. or we're going to get a regime victory. does anyone in their right mind want a regime victory in this situation, a regime that's killed upwards of 100,000 people which is supported by the enemies of the united states. is that what we want? if there isn't effective intervention on the side of the rebels, that's very likely what we're going to get. regime is winning right now. that needs to be changed. and u.s. intervention could do that. >> woodruff: all right. we are going to need to leave it there. all right. john mearsheimer very quick response. >> we live with the assad regime for 43 years. so there's no reason we couldn't live with the assad regime for another 4 years. the idea that it's a strategic threat to the united states, i do not believe it's a serious argument. >> woodruff: all right. we will leave it there. john mearsheimer, jeffrey white, we thank you both. >> brown: we have more on syria later in the program, with a look at the continuing humanitarian crisis. also ahead, the first pictures of the royal baby; the push to enroll young people in health plans; a program to confiscate legally purchased guns; plus, dementia and sexual consent. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: in washington, house tea party conservatives and liberal democrats pushed to bar funding for any arms for syria's rebels unless congress approves. it's one of several proposed amendments to a defense spending bill now under debate. the same coalition also wants to rescind the national security agency's power for blanket collection of data and restrict the agency's phone surveillance program. a final vote on the legislation is expected late this evening. in egypt, fresh street clashes killed at least nine people near the main campus of cairo university. the latest violence between supporters and opponents of ousted leader mohammed morsi broke out before dawn, at the site of a muslim brotherhood sit-in. police said hundreds of morsi supporters battled with local residents. the confrontations left smashed glass and a dozen charred cars. more than 30 people were wounded. al-qaeda claimed responsibility today for the recent raids on two high-security prisons near baghdad. iraqi officials say about 500 inmates escaped, including some top al-qaeda militants. today the areas around the prisons were locked down as police searched for escapees. a suicide bombing in eastern afghanistan today killed three nato soldiers and their interpreter. the taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in wardak province. the nationalities of the service members were not immediately released. pope francis rested and held private meetings during his first full day in brazil, after an event-filled arrival yesterday. last evening, throngs of people surrounded the pope's car when his driver made a wrong turn, straight into rio de janeiro traffic. the pontiff greeted supporters through the car window as bodyguards pushed back the crowd. vatican officials insisted there were no concerns for the pope's safety. virginia governor bob mcdonnell said today he's repaid more than $124,000 in loans he and his family received from a major political donor. in a statement, mcdonnell maintained the loans broke no laws, but he apologized for embarrassing the state of virginia. federal and state authorities are looking into thousands of dollars in gifts given to the governor's family since 2010. anthony weaner apologized today for sending explicit photos and texts to a woman he met online. the gossip site, the dirty, posted their correspondent online monday. the newly revealed incidents took place more than a year after weaner resigned from congress in 2011 for similarly lewd behavior involving half a dozen women. weaner said he plans to remain in the mayoral race. in economic news, stocks were mixed on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average posted a new closing high, gaining 22 points to close above 15,567. the nasdaq fell 21 points to close at 3579. former boxing champion emile griffith died today in new york after suffering from dementia. griffith was the first boxer from the u.s. virgin islands to become world champion. he was inducted into the sport's hall of fame in 1990. but he's perhaps best known for the 1962 title match in which he knocked out bennie paret, who went into a coma and died. emile griffith was 75 years old. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and to the first look at britain's new prince. tim ewart of independent television news reports. >> reporter: prince william had been presented on these same steps by his mother, diana, princess of wales. today 31 years on, there was a new prince and again the most eagerly awaited photograph in the world. he was only 24 hours old and yet to be given a name. but the prince of cambridge, third in line to the throne, was already commanding center stage. and his parents were happy to tell us all about him. >> he's got a good pair of lungs. that's for sure. he's a big boy. quite heavy. we are still deciding on a name. we'll have that as soon as we can. the first time you've seen him. so having a proper shot. [ cheers and applause ] >> very special. as any parent knows. life will get back to normal now when we get home. [ cheers and applause ] >> we'll wait and see. (inaudible). >> reporter: earlier the grandparents came to visit. first michael and carol middleton, kate's parents. they were the first to tell the world about the new baby. >> he's absolutely beautiful. the birth went really well. we're so thrilled. >> how are the parents? well. amazing. it's all coming back. >> reporter: and then the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall, the first time since the 1890s that there have been three living direct heirs to the throne. today they were in the same room. all new parents face the challenge of the car seat, but most don't have to get it secured in front of a live global television audience. william and kate managed it well. and then with the new baby in the back and the new father behind the wheel, they set off to start their new life. >> brown: and we return to our continuing coverage of the many questions and issues surrounding the health care reform law. tonight, we focus on the pivotal question of enrolling young adults, as deadlines approach this fall. ray suarez reports. >> suarez: it was a meeting behind closed doors at the white house yesterday and it included a notable group. actors like alissa keys, jennifer hudson, all of whom offered their help in trying to sell the health care reform law. meeting as part of a continuing effort to gain public support for the affordable care act and make sure seven million people enrolled for insurance in the first year. the white house is working on multiple fronts to persuade americans to sign up. that includes more appearances by the president to speak out about the law as he did last week. the senior white house advisor is working on the effort. >> the first thing to do is raise awareness, making people clear about what the affordable care act is and how it benefits them. that began on mother's day. we're going to continue to ramp up through the summer. >> suarez: under the law individuals must have health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014. so far 17 states will offer coverage through their own insurance exchanges. the rest will participate through a federally managed program. younger, healthier people are critical to balance out the older enrollees who are often sicker and keep costs down. >> we know that in order for us to be successful, to really make sure that the marketplaces are effective there's a smaller sub set that needs to really be at the center of our focus for outreach. and that's about two million to two-and-a-half million young and healthy- to 35-year-olds. >> suarez: the challenge now how to convince young people most of whom are healthy to spend money on insurance they may not think they need or can afford. there's no recent comparable effort to the insurance campaign but one that is frequently cited is the rollout of the prescription drug program for seniors known as medicare part-d under president george w. bush. former health and human services advisor helped implement part-d. he says the obama administration is running behind. >> it's not pulling a lever like in the ballot. it's not a vote. it's a very spencive personal decision. you can't just do that with a celebrity. you just can't do that with a 0-second ad. it takes years and thousands of events out in the community to do that. they're starting too late. this is a long process. if they don't get it together, it's going to fail. >> suarez: the health insurance exchanges are set to open october 1. >> suarez: we get two views on getting young adults into the insurance market and how it may work under the new law. the deputy director of young invincibles, a group seeking to enroll more americans in their 20s and 30s. and the president of generation opportunity, a group of younger adults opposed to the law. what do we know, what are the main reasons up until now before the affordable care act that young people haven't bought health care? >> well, ray, there's a variety of reasons. one of which is really looking at access to insurance through your employer. so we actually saw through the last decade that insurance rates, offering insurance to young people through their employers the traditional way we think of people getting coverage dropped significantly. we saw a 1% drop in the last decade. when young people don't have coverage through their employer and you have an individual market that frankly was too expensive, then you really do see really high rates of insurance. >> suarez: evan, in your view, does the affordable care act answer any of those things that are keeping people out. >> absolutely not. if anything it exasperates those problems significantly. premiums for young americans are going to nearly triple under obama care. it will make health insurance that much more expensive for my genera it's a terrible deal. that's why they're having such a hard time getting young people to enroll. young people know a bad deal when they see it. >> suarez: give me your best pitch for people who are going to be faced with this new marketplace starting october 1 for why they should get in. >> one thing i would add, ray, is is that there are about 19 million uninsured young adults. of that population about eight million of those could get medicaid if all states extended medicare. ... medicaid. we're hoping all states will. another nine million could get access to subsidies, access to tax credits that you could get every month to bring your insurance cost down. so you're actually looking at rates that are going to be much lower. take somebody who is, say, a 21-year-old going to community college working part time. he is maybe making $18,000, $20,000 a year and trying to put himself through school at night. premiums will be $40-$50 a month with the subsidies. he can have new options that he never saw before. >> suarez: are you urging that student, the one that you just posited to stay out of the marketplace and just take the fine or play with all the shortcomings that you identified with the affordable care act as it. >> i mean, i looked at health insurance before i came over here. my hometown of pittsburgh pennsylvania. there were 27 health care plans available to me that were under $100 a piece. the private market is still the better option. young people are going to be used under obama care. that's the only way it works. we're going to subsidize an older wealthier generation's health care. we can have affordable options. if we pay the penalty and stay outside the obama care and pay for our own health insurance. >> even the law's strongest supporters know that the numbers work when you get younger, healthier worker into the pool. is evan wrong when he concludes that younger rate payors will help subsidize the care of older americans? >> i would add that young people will be buying their own health insurance. they will be buying individual insurance. the exchanges is a free marketplace. it will just be for those who are low income. they're just going to be getting subsidies to purchase insurance to bring those rates down. now that is a new system. it will be a new day in health insurance. that's why we know that there's a lot of work to be done to educate people on what's coming. >> suarez: those plans that evan has referred to as being much cheaper than the ones being offered under the affordable care act, do they include all the same kind of coverage as you're going to get in the exchanges? >> absolutely not. the state he can changes, the federal exchange will have a broader base of coverage. they're going to cover things like preventive care. >> saurez: they're required to under the requirement of the bill, right? >> they are. they're required to cover essential health benefits. but again when you're looking at a system where you get a tax credit based on your income to actually purchase those plans you can really see affordable options for the first time for a lot of young people who, a lot of young uninsured people are pretty low income. >> suarez: evan, aren't you making kind of a bet as a young worker that nothing terrible is going to happen to you if you are in a less than comprehensive plan because it's cheaper? >> i don't think so at all. there are far lower premiums. you might have some exposure to in costs but those insurance plans are good insurance plans that meet our budget and our needs. we don't see the doctors often and don't have many prescriptions as our parents and grandparents. it's not a bad deal for us to buy an insurance plan that doesn't have the gold-plated benefits that are meant for older sicker people when we're younger and healthier. the notion that within the exchange that that's not a bad deal for us, young invincibles themselves pushed back against the secretary during the obama care debate because they were looking for less of an age rating or i should say a looser age rating ban. they knew that young people were going to be charged more than their fair share to subsidize a health insurance plan for older, sicker americans. it's unfair and it's bad policy. it crushes us in our leanest years by taking more of our hard-earned wealth in order to subsidize those that have more than us. >> suarez: the market opens in several months. that october 1 day is is looming. are you starting from square one with a lot of people in this age range about what is out there, what it means for them and what's available to them now? >> i see two challenges. the first challenge i see is making sure that young people who have never or a locality of them have never actually experienced the insurance market, again for a variety of reasons, traditionally there weren't low-cost options available, really beginning to understand what insurance means. what a deductible is, what a copay is, how that impacts their choices and what choices they decide to make. that's one piece of it. the other piece of it is really making sure that young people really know their options. so young people actually have a range of options and a range much different types of plans that all meet some of the baseline standards. so they're going to have to be able to go in and decide what makes sense for them. we need to make sure that we're educating young people in all of those things. >> suarez: if they decide they want to be in the marketplace, they don't have to pull the trigger right away, right? >> that's right. open enrollment this year will start october 1. it will run through the spring. so we do have a six-month period and we're starting now but we have a six-month period to really make sure we're educating the population as a whole and certainly young people on new options and what's going to happen. >> suarez: where does that leave you? i mean, do you enter that same information marketplace and just tell people don't do it? >> sure. they're trying to dupe young americans and saying this is going to be a good deal for you. somehow that's the crux. that's how obama care works. if young people take a bad deal and enter the exchanges, well then maybe older individuals can get health insurance. >> suarez: evan, isn't that how insurance works? don't the people who don't use benefits are in effect helping pay for those who do? >> no, no, that's not how health insurance works at all. health insurance works by covering you in the event that you need health care services that you wouldn't normally necessarily need. but if. >> suarez: but if you've paid $10,000 in premiums and get into a $50,000 accident, the money comes from somewhere. >> absolutely. that's why we would encourage young americans to provide an insurance policy that would protect them against those kinds of costs. insurance doesn't work by having young people pay a greater portion than they would otherwise use and older people who are going to necessarily use it. that's knots insurance. that's a wealth redistribution scheme where young people pay for older sicker people. that's not at all what young americans should be interested in. they should be interested in real health insurance that reflects what's best for them and their families. >> suarez: thank you both. thanks, ray. >> woodruff: and now the second in our series of stories this week on efforts to reduce gun violence. tonight, spencer michels reports on a california program to take away guns who no longer should legally have them. >> hey, partner, what's your name? roy? >> roy. >> are you on probation right now? >> yes, sir. >> okay. you live here right now? okay. which one is your room? >> i don't have a room. >> you don't have a room? where do you stay? >> i sleep in the living room. >> oka, just do me a favor. while you are here right now, take your hands out of your pockets. do you have anything illegal on your person? >> no, sir. i just got out of jail. >> when did you get out of jail? >> in march. >> what were you in the county for? >> felony possession of firearms. >> is that right? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: on a residential street in sacramento county, kisu yo supervises a team of nine agents from california's department of justice looking for guns state records tell them are in the hands of those forbidden from having them. >> we're going to talk to people that have a domestic violence restraining order, people who have been convicted of a felony, people who have mental health committments. >> reporter: these are the people that have legally acquired and purchased firearms legally at one time or another in their life, and since then, they have become prohibited from possessing firearms. california, which has the country's most comprehensive records of firearm purchases, is the only state sending agents door-to-door, confiscating legally purchased guns from people who later became barred from owning them. garen wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at the university of california at davis, specializes in violence prevention, and helped the state develop the armed and prohibited persons system. >> we spend a great deal of time trying to prevent people who are prohibited already from buying guns. the smart new idea was this: what about the other way around? what about somebody who's bought a gun before, legally, and now they're a prohibited person? and the smart new idea was, let's go take them back. >> reporter: the goal of the program, which began in 2007, is to prevent gun violence, and headlines like the case of roy perez, a mentally ill man in los angeles who shot to death three people in 2008, despite being on the state's armed prohibited person's list. >> it's a great program. whenever you take out one firearm off the street, you're making a difference. but when we go out, we're taking out five, ten, 20, 30, 40 guns, depending on the night. this right here is an ak-47- style assault rifle with a 100- round drum magazine that was confiscated last night from napa county from a mentally health committed person. the bottom line is, they're prohibited from possessing them, so we end up confiscating them and then taking them to jail. >> reporter: over the last six years, agents have seized more than 10,000 guns from around the state, and records show there are 40,000 more still out there. agents use an automated system which compares the state's massive database of people who have purchased guns legally with other databases that record every felony and violent misdemeanor conviction, involuntary mental illness confinement, or temporary restraining order. the results can be impressive. >> all the firearms on this table have been confiscated in the last six months. this is a .500 caliber revolver. it's the most powerful handgun known to us. >> reporter: but it's tricky work. since law enforcement isn't sure where the guns are today-- many people on the list purchased their guns years ago-- the agents usually don't have the probable cause needed to obtain search warrants, so they use persuasion to gain access. if firearms are discovered that are registered to the person, an arrest can be made. gun enthusiast gene hoffman, chairman of cal guns foundation, says he supports the aim of the gun confiscation program, but he has serious problems with the ways agents go about looking for the weapons. >> i think they should be able to convince a judge that there's reasonable suspicion or probable cause, because firearm possession in the home is one of those protected fundamental rights. he also thinks the program is simply ineffective because agents can't force people to let them search their homes. >> you need a warrant to search someone's house, so the people who most have something to hide can simply say no thank you and close the door in the face of these agents. >> reporter: despite such skepticism, california's program has been cited as a possible model for other states seeking to prevent gun violence in the wake of recent national tragedies. statewide, the program employs 33 agents, but this spring it got a big boost when the legislature approved an additional $24 million to more than double the number of agents looking for guns. california attorney general kamala harris had lobbied for the additional money because the backlog was growing, and the agents couldn't keep up. > we're going to eliminate the backlog within the next three years. >> hey, guys, can you do me a favor? can you all go inside? >> reporter: agents search for prohibited guns almost every day throughout california. it's a time-consuming and expensive operation. sometimes they find guns, and sometimes they don't. on a recent evening we rode along as agents went to 13 residences. no guns were found. most of the people they were looking for had moved away, some several years ago. >> we do the best we can to find the most current addresses. sometimes we find they've given us false addresses. we have to do a lot of follow- ups on the back end to obtain or locate the subjects. >> moved to arkansas. >> copy that. moved out of state to arkansas. >> reporter: some guns rights advocates, like northern california gun store owner roman kaplan, don't oppose the concept of getting guns out of the hands of criminals or the mentally ill, but he's skeptical the program will do much good in preventing shootings, as in connecticut. >> it's always hysterical reaction, it's always knee-jerk reaction. after anything happens, there's this knee-jerk reaction. it usually doesn't lead to anything; it's just a way for politicians to show that we do something. >> reporter: kaplan is annoyed that people who want to purchase a gun legally at his store are saddled with a $25 background check fee which is being used to pay for the new agents. >> with all the limitations put by california legislation on legal gun owners, it doesn't make any sense. it doesn't make anyone safer. >> reporter: hoffman, a high- tech entrepreneur, says he has concerns about the accuracy of the databases used by the state. but his main problem is who is not being targeted: criminals in high-crime areas. >> i don't necessarily think that these raids are capturing the types of criminals that are most likely to cause problems with firearms. it would be far more valuable for these folks to be following up on straw purchases in places like east oakland and compton. this is where most of the firearms are getting into the hands of the truly violent. >> reporter: but violence prevention expert wintemute says the state is now targeting individuals who are more likely to commit a crime. >> the risk for doing another crime is highest immediately after that first crime has been committed, and it goes down with the time thereafter. we need to go after everybody-- the new felons, and the new violent misdemeanors, and the people who've just been served with domestic violence restraining orders, and the people who've just been hospitalized because a mental health professional has determined that they are a danger to themselves or to somebody else, and now they've been released. >> reporter: experts say it is impossible to know exactly how many guns in california have been purchased illegally, or brought in from out of state. still, the agents who put on their flak jackets and walk up to unfamiliar doorways contend they are making a difference, getting guns out of the hands of those they know shouldn't have them. >> brown: out next story comes from inside san quentin prison, where some violent offenders are learning to be peacemakers. and online, see just how many illegal firearms california has confiscated since 2007. the details are on our home page. >> woodruff: and we come back to the civil war in syria. it's triggered a massive humanitarian crisis for the country's 20 million people. margaret warner has that story. >> warner: according to the united nations, more than four million people are displaced inside syria. an estimated three million more have fled the neighboring countries. but the u.n. reports it doesn't have enough international funding to meet the needs. secretary of state john kerry met in washington today with the chiefs of the u.n.'s humanitarian agencies and had this to say. >> we are having to move people directly and protect people. we intend to have a very in-depth, solemn discussion today about whether we can meet our obligations to human beings who are in huge danger. >> warner: for more we turn to ann richard assistant secretary of state for population refugees and migration and nancy lindberg, assistant administrator of the u.s. agency for international development in charge of conflict and humanitarian assistance. both have been to the region in the past month and both were in today's meeting. thank you both for coming in. nancy, i'll begin with you. this humanitarian crisis has been going on for a couple of years now. why did secretary kerry feel the need to convene all these important people from the u.n. agencies here today? >> you know, primarily an opportunity to hear directly from them how the crisis is proceeding and one of the thoaft important statements said, "this is no longer just a syrian crisis. this is really a regional crisis. and the humanitarian dimensions are no longer just an outcome of the war. they are their own crisis with the level of needs escalating, and the amount of misery as people flee the country, flee their homes inside syria continues to increase. >> warner: what would you add to that? >> they had a good understanding of the problem. so we were able to get right down to business and talk about what else was needed. >> warner: let's talk about what else was needed. i'll start with you, nancy. what are the challenges and the dangers of delivering aid in a conflict zone like syria you have opposing forces, two even three or more controlling different parts of territory. how do you do it? >> well, the challenges, as you said, are really three-fold. one is the inability to access everybody who is in need. second is the insecurity. we heard stories today and we are hear it constantly from our partners that the check points as they try to move from one place to another continue to proliferate. along one road there were 65 check points manned by various factions and both the regime and the opposition. so it comes down to extraordinarily courageous humanitarian workers. we work with a whole variety of partners. the u.n., n.g.o.s, and the majority of them are syrians who are actually on the ground helping friends and neighbors. >> warner: and how do you actually navigate through these different zones? you spoke earlier this year about having to send in a heavily armed convoy making complicated negotiations to be able to do it. >> they're not so much heavily armed as they are heavily armed with information about who they need to negotiate with. so it's understanding the terrain, having the ability to call the person who can tell that check point this is a humanitarian convoy. let them go by. but it can take days. it can take four days to travel what should be a three-hour roadway. >> warner: and then administrator richard, what about... i mean, secretary richard, what about the situation though in lebanon and jordan? let's take two of the neighboring countries bearing a huge burden. you don't have an access problem there. so what are the big obstacles to delivering enough aid? >> that's right. people are coming out of syria, crossing the borders, because while some aid is getting delivered inside syria it's still a very dangerous place. so they're safer if they cross to other countries. but there, they have to find places to live. there are tents for about a quarter of the refugees, but most refugees are living in cities and towns and villages. they're living with friends. they're living with relatives or they're living with strangers or paying rent. so they need help too but they're harder to find and they're harder to help. >> warner: how dire are the needs or how unmet are the needs? the u.n. said in announcing this new request just what, last month, for more money, that they were like three billion short i think just toward the end of the year. what isn't getting done? >> the scope of this crisis is so big, it grew so quickly and the numbers are just unanticipated and quickly rising. so as a result, we're constantly playing catch-up to provide the assistance that people need. >> warner: but are people going hungry now? >> no. the u.n. has done a great job in getting help to people that need the help. but the problem is that we don't see it stopping any time soon. and the longer this goes on, the more acute people people's needs are. they run through their savings. they become a burden on the people who are hosting them. there's the ponlt of tensions with host communities in countries like jordan and lebanon where they're expecting their government to help them and they see refugees getting aid. one of our approaches that we endorse is to help local citizens as well as the refugees. anybody who needs help, the idea is is to get them the help that they need so that they continue to host the refugees. >> warner: what if anything came out of today's meeting in terms of getting more funding, getting... i know the united states has given a third of the funding so far but getting other countries to step up more. and in general trying to get ahead of this curve? >> the united states is currently the world's largest donor to the crisis. and one important outcome was a renewed commitment to connect with a variety of donors including those who don't typically give to the multilateral system. this is going to be an international effort if we are going to succeed in providing assistance. >> it's fair to say that some countries -- and i mention the gulf countries, sometimes there have been big pledges but not in that? >> well, the u.n. agencies gave us a more rosey picture on the funding from the conference that we attended and represented the united states at last january. they felt that in the subsequent time not only had the united states met our pledges but also kuwait had provided $300 million through u.n. agencies and international organizations. and europeans had made major contributions. so the trick that we have to address is finding new donors, new countries to come to the table and provide aid. that's where a diplomatic outreach is really needed. >> warner: we have to leave it there. thank you so much. >> thank you, margaret. >> brown: it's not a subject much discussed-- not in public-- but it's growing increasingly consequential as baby-boomers age, and the incidence of alzheimer's grows. the issue is sexual relations, dementia, and what constitutes consent, and it has nursing homes struggling with ethical, legal and practical questions. brian gruley of bloomberg news has recently written two in- depth reports on the subject, and joins us now you tell the story of a case. you tell the story of a case that occurred at a nursing home in iowa called windmill manor that shows how unprepared institutions are for dealing with this. a man and a woman, not married to one another, are discovered in bed once and then again. tell us briefly what happened from there. >> well, it was the second incident, jeff, that really triggered things because they were actually having intercourse. the woman was married to somebody on the outside. the man was divorced. both of them had dementia to some degree. the results of this was catastrophic for some people. the man was eventually removed from the home. his family then had to drive almost two hours to visit him. the administrator was fired. he's no longer an elderly health care. the nursing director was fired and eventually lost her license. and it just didn't end well for anybody. even though these two people appeared to like each other. >> brown: the issue, of course, was what is consensual and then, what needs to report, to be reported to whom. you show how these questions simply are not clear. >> that's right. i mean, the laws -- and they vary from state to state -- the laws obviously deal with issues of rape. they deal with issues of, to some degree, of how much privacy that people who want to be together in nursing homes have. but there aren't very clear guidelines. many nursing homes and other long-term care facilities who are financially strapped anyway, you know, they haven't really had to deal with this. but the coming bubble of baby boomers over the age of 65 may well force them to come to grips with these issues. they're very complex. and, you know, even people who are experts in geriatrics will say it's difficult to tell whether somebody with dementia would have the right or the capacity to consent to sex. they might have that capacity even though they don't know how to, say, balance their checkbook. >> brown: in this particular case that you write about -- and we should say you withheld the names of the people out of respect for their privacy -- but you say that the woman called the man by her husband's name and was calmed by his presence. there was an intimacy there clearly. it wasn't clear what she knew at the time. so that led to some of the questions. >> that's right. you know, maybe i missed it in the hundreds of pages of disok euments i read, jeff, but i couldn't find a reference to the various authorities at the nursing home and in the state regulatory agencies ever asking the man or the woman what they thought. maybe they just didn't trust them because they had dementia. but the question remains, you know, were they exercising their own right to intimacy? the truth is they have a right to this. obviously they also have a right to safety if they're uncomfortable in a situation like that. but what evidence there is -- and we don't know because we weren't in that room -- the evidence is that, you know, they kind of liked each other. >> brown: now your second report, you write about some nursing homes that are taking a rather different approach. one in particular you wrote about is hebrew home in new york where you say... you say presumes that residents with dementia have the capacity to decide whether to have sex. a more encouraging of intimacy including sex? >> yes. the hebrew home back in 1995 recognized the fact that people were being intimate, whether it's hand holding or kissing or fondling or all the way to intercourse. it was happening whether they wanted to admit it or not. and if the folks there decided, let's confront this head on and so they wrote a policy that helped staff know what to do, what to look for to make sure that residents, including those with dementia, including those without, were comfortable in those relationships. the-lie belief being that not only did they have a right to these relationships just as they would on the outside but it's good for these people particularly those who have dementia and may have lost touch to some degree with family or friends and that feeling of closeness with somebody else, the feeling of touch, is a gift later in their life. >> brown: very briefly, if you would, to the extent that this is becoming a bigger issue, is there more talk about it? is there more being done with guidelines and standards? >> i think there's more talk about it now, jeff, than there was even five years ago. and hopefully these stories and some of the conversation they've generated will make nursing homes think about it more and will get researchers to do more research into this because the numbers are what the numbers are. and they're big. they're going to have to deal with this as this generation, my generation moves into their late 60s and 70s and 80s. >> brown: bryan gruley of bloomberg, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. the pentagon gave a grim assessment of u.s. intervention options in syria, warning any military involvement would come at a great cost and risk. a new wave of street clashes in egypt killed at least nine people at a muslim brotherhood sit-in near the main campus of cairo university. and the world finally got its first glimpse of the new royal heir as prince william and his wife kate left a london hospital. >> brown: online, some advice on getting an edge in the job interview process. kwame holman has more. >> holman: in a tight job market, it's all about how you stand out to employers. in our "ask the headhunter" column today, find out how "talking shop" distinguishes you from other candidates. that and much more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll have a newsmaker interview with senate majority leader harry reid. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib brought to you by. >> sailing through the heart of historic cities and landscapes on a river you get close to iconic landmarks, to local life, to cultural treasures. viking river cruises, exploring the world in comfort. apple of your eye, the company that was once the darling of wall street said strong iphone sales helped boost results. is this the catalyst that will help turn stock around? 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