Non-Violence is a bronze sculpture of a 45-calibre revolver with its barrel tied in a knot. The gun is cocked, but the knot makes it clear that it cannot shoot.  

Artist Carl Frederk Reutersward made the sculpture in 1980 after his friend, John Lennon, was murdered. He said, “I became so upset and angry over his death and many other outbursts of unnecessary violence that I went right to my studio and started working on the project ‘Non-Violence’.” The knotted gun honors John Lennon’s vision of a world at peace. Lennon was a public advocate for peace and non-violence in many of his songs, as a member of famous pop group The Beatles and in his songs with his wife and musical partner Yoko Ono. Reutersward said in his statement from 1988, “Humor is the finest instrument we have to bring people together. While making my peace-symbol, I thought of the importance of introducing a touch of humor, just to make my ‘weapon’ symbolically ridiculous and completely out of order.” 

There are many replicas of the sculpture installed in different countries. The sculpture at the United Nations was one of the first three versions of the sculpture. It was originally placed at the Strawberry Fields memorial in New York City’s Central Park, across the street from where Lennon and Ono lived. In 1988, the Government of Luxembourg bought the sculpture and donated it to the United Nations. The work was installed in June 1988 at New York’s United Nations Headquarters, at a ceremony attended by Artist Carl Frederik Reutersward, Yoko Ono, and the Secretary-General at the time, Javier Perez de Cuellar. 

Non-Violence is an important peace symbol at the UN Headquarters. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the 10th year anniversary in 1999, “It has enriched the consciousness of humanity with a powerful symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple curves, the greatest prayer of man; that which asks not for victory, but for peace.”