Wednesday would have been Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s 44th wedding anniversary. To honor that moment, Ono,80, decided to make a statement about gun violence when she tweeted a photo of John Lennon’s bloody glasses and included text which made it evident that Yoko Ono was joining the U.S. gun debate.
Ono’s tweet was retweeted more than 14,000 times since it was posted on Wednesday, and one of those retweets came from the Twitter account of @BarackObama. While a retweet from President Obama’s account doesn’t always serve as an endorsement in the Twitter world, Ono’s activism comes at a time when President Obama and a group of bi-partisan politicians in Washington are pushing for stronger gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Americans are voicing their opinion on the issue. Polls are showing that 55% of Americans support the assault weapons ban, which is no longer included in the Democrats gun control package due to concern that the GOP would kill the entire the bill on arrival due to that component, and 83% of Americans support background checks for private and gun show sales.
The Beatles frontman John Lennon died in 1980 after being shot in the back four time at his New York City apartment. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Ono tweeted the same picture, four times, each time with a different anti-violence statement. In her last tweet she said, “The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him. Yoko Ono Lennon.”
Abby Borovitz