
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994                   TAG: 9402250018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

A NEW "Death Clock" in New York City's Times Square has been patterned after another grim sign of the times that's been there for several years: a "clock" that tracks the national debt - now roughly $4 trillion, give or take a few billion - and calculates the share of the debt (more than $16,000) that each American owes.

The death clock, erected by the Dehere Gun Fighters of America, will tick off the growing number of shooting deaths in the United States - now about 37,000 a year, including children. Many visitors to the Big Apple may avert their eyes. But if the debt clock helps remind that we're running up a colossal bill for future generations to pay, an immoral act, the death clock will help remind that gunfire violence is mowing down these generations - a national tragedy.

by CNB