Word: houstons
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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SPACE CENTER, Houston--A space shuttle accident on landing at Cape Canaveral is a certainty because the site is dangerous, says chief astronaut John Young in a memo written before the Challenger disaster...
Ordinarily, such an occurrence, however regrettable, would not attract much attention (in 1983, the latest year for which such figures are available, 261 youngsters under age 18 were killed in shooting mishaps). But the next day another Houston boy, 12, shot and killed his eight-year-old half brother. Two days later, a third local youngster was fatally shot with a pistol. By last week the Houston area had recorded 13 accidental shootings in nine weeks, six of them fatal, all of them involving victims under 18 years...
...shootings prompted a special meeting of Houston police and school officials to discuss ways to stop the carnage. A local TV station announced a series of programs and public seminars on firearms safety, and an area newspaper urged gun owners to show more responsibility. Said Police Chief Lee Brown: "If you have a weapon, you need to take care to ensure that the weapon is secure, that it is locked away and not accessible to children...
Despite the appeals for safety measures, there is little support for strict firearms laws. In Houston, gun control is as unpopular as zoning. A Texan with a driver's license or similar I.D. can walk into a gun shop, sign a federal firearms form and purchase a weapon. No waiting period or local registration is required. The absence of any significant restrictions on gun ownership has helped put firearms in more than a few bedroom closets and night-table drawers --and, it seems, into the hands of youngsters who do not realize how lethal the weapons...
...biggest airline would be a dream come true at last for Frank Lorenzo, Texas Air's ambitious chairman, who failed in earlier efforts to buy Trans World Airlines and then Frontier Airlines. But a Texas Air-Eastern combination would be a nightmare for other airlines. Lorenzo has made Houston- based Texas Air, which owns Continental Airlines and New York Air, highly successful by paying relatively low wages and offering passengers cut-rate prices. As head of Texas Air and Eastern, he could easily trigger the most vicious fare wars that the industry has ever known...