Photo of John Lennon's Glasses: A Plea on Gun Violence

Photo of John Lennon's Glasses: A Plea on Gun Violence

An image can be an incredibly powerful thing. Someone once told me that a picture isn't worth a thousand words; it speaks a thousand languages. On the 44th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's wedding, Ono tweeted an image of Lennon's bloodied glasses - the glasses he was wearing when he was slain over 30 years ago.

The image was originally used as the cover of her 1981 album, Season of Glass. It's an image of the glasses overlooking New York's Central Park. Ono, who is not quiet on her stance of gun violence, tweeted her picture along with this message:

"Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980."

Followed by:

"31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year. We are turning this beautiful country into war zone."

"Together, let's bring back America, the green land of peace."

"The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him."

From Wednesday to Friday, the image has been shared over 43,000 times - including the Twitter account of President Obama.

Via NPR and The New York Times

Chris Knight's picture

Residing in New York City, Chris is an internationally published photographer whose work has appeared in Vogue, People, MSNBC, ABC, Ocean Drive, GQ and others. He is an instructor of Photography and Imaging at Pratt Institute and the New York Film Academy.

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22 Comments

heavy

*anniversary- in the second line

As provocative an image as that is, where are you getting your facts? “31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year"? Unless you are counting firearm-related suicides and accidents, you are WAY off. According to the CDC, the total number of homicides every year is 16,259, of which only 11,078 are firearm-related. Also, a gun alone has never killed anybody. Criminals murder people; whatever they use is just a tool.

Anti Constatutionalist include, the deaths of criminals shot by officers, sucides and various other numbers to dramatize the facts in order to prevent the "gun" issue being seen for what it really is "Whats is in these drugs and why do almost all mass shooters take it"

"Guns are an extremely easy to use tool designed to kill people. Just point and shoot."

Maybe you should stop driving your 5,000 pound weapon to work, you might just run over someone.

lol. I guess cars' sole purpose was their design to kill people?

Rofl. You people. You fail at logic so hard.

I'm just wondering, did you ever graduate highschool? With hovering colors even?

What an utter boob you are! It's sad that I have to explain to you that anything can be used as a deadly weapon. If you purposely harm someone with a car you will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Regardless of what the item is designed for, a person's decision to use it in a manner that is harmful or deadly does indeed make that item a weapon. Stop your "rofl" and "lol", you dense buffoon. Also, please do take note that High School is comprised of two separate words, but I don't expect you to know that judging by obvious idiocy.

But what use does a gun have other than to kill?

Well, it's not that simple. The true purpose of a gun is to accelerate an object or projectile out of it's barrel to a certain speed in a controllable fashion. Uses of guns include, but are not limited to: skeet shooting, target shooting, hunting (animals :), defense of property and self, deterrence, collecting, and entertainment. It is obvious that many, you included, are brainwashed into believing that a gun is inherently bad and evil. An intelligent individual would not pose such a simplistic question as you have done.

You're stupid. I bet your gun was made to suck your dick too.

And no, intelligent individuals pose simple and to some *ignorant* people,
easy questions, because certain people on the interwebs are incapable of
understanding more complex processes besides a question like this, besides the obvious philosophical ramifications of weapon violence, you fucking dumb ass.

He just has to pose it simply, so idiots like yourself can fit it through your gun colored glasses, without popping a head gasket from thinkin wit ur noggin too hurd.

This was one of the earliest guns,http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/800px-yuan... I am sure it was used to shoot skeet, as an investment, and to collect, just to name a few of your asinine faux reasons to justify your gun crazy opinions.

Pistol Whipping?

Here ya go: http://gunssavelives.net/category/self-defense/

Since you guys see so little of this in the media because most of it is rabidly anti-gun as well...

Wow, your vocabulary of 'boob' really astounds me. Do you even know what those are?

You're right, as I said, that wasn't my point, numbnuts, hence my new namesake.

You know, I could kill you with your limp dick, that doesn't mean it was designed to kill people, you half retarded gun loving asshat.

You need a lesson in something known to legitimately knowledgeable people as "logic".

A car is used to ____

A gun is used to ____.

That is not the same word, if it is, you are mentally retarded, there is something wrong with you, and you need to have yourself evaluated by a medical professional, brah.

Oh no, the random intellectual adept on the internets called me a thick idiot, that is one of the most original ways to put someone down when you have no facts besides your thick layer of retardation penetrating your thin skull and insulating you from the world of facts outside of your womb of unknowledge.

I mean seriously, what are you, 40? coming on a forum, with a complete lack of facts, to try and attack someone else, with your weak as shit attempt at insults, and you can't even distract from the obvious fact that you have no *fucking* idea what you're talking about, or no smidgeon of logic in your entire ignorant ass body.

Oh, why thanka you. I am now aware, abecause of ayou, asir, of your uh, ultimate knowledge by edumacating mes selfs on the internetz. why athanka you.

Anything else you'd like massa?

But, because your thin skull is almost too thick to understand.

A CAR was made to drive.

A gun was made to kill.

You're stupid as fuck if you believe anything else.

Goodbye, nutty mC nut nutez.

You're stupid. I bet your gun was made to suck your dick too.

And no, intelligent individuals pose simple and to some *ignorant* people,
easy questions, because certain people on the interwebs are incapable of

understanding more complex processes besides a question like this,
besides the obvious philosophical ramifications of weapon violence, you
fucking dumb ass.

He just has to pose it simply, so idiots like yourself can fit it through your gun colored glasses, without popping a head gasket from thinkin wit ur noggin too hurd.

This was one of the earliest guns, http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/800px-yuan... I am sure it was used to shoot skeet, as an investment, and to collect, just to name a few of your asinine faux reasons to justify your gun crazy attitudes.

Poor little libtard, are you angry? Your little rage filled rant is an indication that you have serious unresolved childhood issues, likely to do with the organ you keep referring to. Get some help.

If you have NSFW warnings for tits. You better well have it for violent imagery.

if guns should be taken away, so should cars and trucks as they are dangerous weapons. Ever wondered what harm a driver can do by simply driving into a crowd of people or walking next to the road?

Let's not allow for a 1984-type world where we cage people and even their thoughts.

Except how quickly can you pull a car out and end a life? Smuggle a car into a school and take the lives of students? Own multiple cars and stockpile fuel in your basement?

People cloud the issue of gun control with emotions. Let's look at the facts. Cars assist with transport, that is their primary function. What is the primary function of guns? Defence by the power to kill.

Ditto Jayson. And ELEVEN THOUSAND people are killed in the US from alcohol according to the CDC...I see no rush to ban or regular alcohol better because it's an addictive drug :-P

FStoppers is supposed to be a blog about photography not politics. It's like the lame tech blogs that are putting politics in. Don't turn it into a political flamefest :-P

But if you get to post this sort of stuff, this should be legal too: http://gunssavelives.net/category/self-defense/

Only 11,078 are firearm related, that's OK then

Homicide is homicide. The manner in which people are killed is immaterial, because in this country firearms save more lives than they take.
Hey Yoko, would you be happier of John had been stabbed to death? Maybe then you'd get off your high horse about socialist cures for problems that the socialist welfare state helps create in the first place. If guns were outlawed, then John likely would have been stabbed. That is what happened to Beatles George Harrison in the "Green and Peaceful" UK...this is in a country that bans everything except "pointy sticks"..Anyone who thinks that laws prevent crime is smoking the same drugs Yoko and John did.