Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1986
Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
7
Official vows to renew NASA's image
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The new chief of the shuttle program, vowing to re-establish NASA's image as a forthcoming public institution, arrived at the spaceport yesterday to get a firsthand look at the agency's inquiry into the Challenger disaster.
Rear Adm. Richard Truly, appointed associate administrator for space flight last week, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center shortly after 2 p.m. on the eve of key hearings by the presidential disaster commission to investigate the decisions that led to Challenger's fatal launch.
"I'm down here to do two things," he said. "One is to get some firsthand information as to what has been discovered by the teams that have been taking a look at the data and the recovered salvage from the Challenger accident.
"And secondly to discuss with (senior NASA managers) an organization so we can fully support the president's commission to study this accident." Truly said.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's internal investigation generally has been shrouded in secrecy, but Truly, a former shuttle astronaut, vowed to improve the flow of information.
Truly also said there was no way to judge when shuttle flights might be able to resume at this early stage in the investigation.
"My only purpose is to make sure that we reestablish the media's belief that NASA is a forthcoming public institution," he said.
"There are a lot of options that have to be studied. When I've had the time to take a look at those options and evaluate them, I'll try to come up with a rational recommendation. I just honestly do not know."
The space agency study is centered at the Kennedy Space Center. Of the astronauts participating in the investigation, 14 are working in Florida under ace shuttle pilot Robert Crippen, seven are
In addition, astronaut Sally Ride is a member of the presidential commission charged with investigating the worst space disaster in history.
based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and two at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The commission scheduled public hearings today and tomorrow in Washington. The hearings are expected to shed light on the controversial decision clearing Challenger for launch on Jan. 28 after a night of sub-freezing weather and a debate about the effect of the cold on crucial rocket booster seals.
William Lucas, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, where the booster program is managed, left for Washington late yesterday to testify before the commission. When asked about reports that word of the debate never reached top NASA managers, he said, "I don't know that's the case."
WHAT CAN THE REGULATION OF HANDGUN SALES ACCOMPLISH?
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When City Commissioner David Longhurst urged his fellow commissioners to respond reasonably to the now superficially restricted sale of handguns within city limits, there was a predictable roar from the local National Rifle Association (NRA) contingent. In his December 15th Hunting and Fishing column, Journal World contributing writer Mike Pearce attributed the following statement about waiting periods to NRA Executive Vice President Ray Arnett: "I know of no case that shows such a regulation has any effect on crime." Local NRA enthusiast John Barrett had begun this dige in the December 14th Journal-World by describing waiting periods as "a dismal failure . . . (whose) only apparent effect . . . is to divert police resources away from more productive activities." Apparently, neither of these gentlemen knows that two years ago the inhabitants of Broward County, Florida, voted for (by a 2-1 margin) a waiting period and background check for those wishing to buy handguns. Since its ordinance, recently upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, took effect in mid-1984, the county has experienced a marked decrease in handgun homicides. Although Mr. Barrett may disagree, many of us consider this an inherently productive use of police resources.
In his letter, Mr. Barrett also held that "those who are truly hurt by restrictions on cheap handguns (Saturday Night Specials) are the poor, especially blacks who live in high crime neighborhoods and need a gun for protection, but cannot afford a higher-priced gun." But more than two months before Mr. Barrett composed his letter, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that a West German manufacturer of Saturday Night Specials was liable for injuries sustained during a robbery because this firm should have foreseen that its inexpensive and flawed product would be used chiefly in "criminal activity." In this case, Mr. Barrett, an attorney, is disagreeing with some very distinguished members of his profession.
A short time ago the NRA-backed McClure-Volkmer bill—which would undercut state handgun laws requiring registration, licenses to carry, waiting periods and background checks—was railroaded through the Senate without a single hearing. Although even such conservative organizations as the Fraternal Order of Police, the Police Foundation, the Police Executive Forum, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Troopers Coalition, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives oppose the McClure-Volkmer bill because they recognize the need for some control over the sale of handguns, the NRA now is trying to highhandedly wheel the McClure-Volkmer bill through the House of Representatives also.
Why does the NRA fear public hearings and the exchange of ideas? When Mr. Barrett, in his contribution to the Journal-World's December 14th Public Forum, discussed the safeguards which must exist in "a truly free society," he undoubtedly was voicing a view held by most NRA members. But Mr. Barrett erred when he claimed the "founding fathers did not provide a system through which we restrict personal freedom as an experiment to see if it will produce some desirable result." His failure to see that one individual's freedom stops when it encroaches upon another's freedom enables him (and his NRA associates) to consider the 50 to 100 million handguns now floating around the country to be an expression of liberation.
Yet if the wholesale distribution of these concealable weapons has enhanced our freedom, then why, in 1980, did only 8 handgun homicides occur in Great Britain, 77 in Japan, 18 in Sweden, 24 in Switzerland, 4 in Australia, 23 in Israel, and 8 in Canada, while 11,522 took place in the United States? When these figures are factored for population, the resulting number of handgun homicides per 100,000 people is .0142 in Great Britain, .0659 in Japan, .2168 in Sweden, .3750 in Switzerland, .0274 in Australia, .5897 in Israel, .0335 in Canada and .5,0624 in the United States. The regulatory apparatus which exists in every of these seven free countries to oversee the sale and exchange of handguns obviously provides the populace of each with much more protection than does the porous structure our national government finds acceptable.
Sarah Brady, wife of White House Press Secretary James Brady who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, recently discovered that the "toy gun" her five-year-old son had picked up from the seat of a friend's truck was really a fully-loaded Saturday Night Special. This incident convinced Mrs. Brady that "the time had come for her to join the movement to keep handguns out of the wrong hands and to ensure that people who have handguns for legitimate reasons know how to keep them safely."
Although each city commissioner certainly wants "to keep handguns out of the wrong hands," several of them don't seem to realize that this worthy goal can't be achieved as long as the essentially unregulated sale of handguns in our community continues.
William Dann
2702 W. 24th Street Terrace
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