If a picture paints a thousand words then Yoko Ono’s contribution to America’s gun law debate will be difficult for the firearms lobby to counter.

She has tweeted a picture of the bloodstained glasses her husband John Lennon was wearing when he was shot dead in New York 33 years ago accompanied by the words: “Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980.”

Ono, 79, sent out several tweets in quick succession to mark the 44th anniversary of her marriage to the former Beatle.

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She wrote: “The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him. Yoko Ono Lennon.”

In another: “31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year. We are turning this beautiful country into war zone.”

A famous advocate for peace, Ono tweeted pictures from her wedding to Lennon in March 1969 with the words: “We decided that if we were going to do anything like get married that we would dedicate it to peace.”

The couple wed in Gibraltar and their honeymoon in Amsterdam doubled as a campaign for peace ("hair peace" and bed peace") with them spending an entire week in bed together and inviting the press.

In last night’s messages Ono called on Americans to bring back “the green land of peace”. The country’s gun debate has recently been reignited in the wake of the Sandy Hook and Aurora massacres.

Ono has previously used the controversial image of her husband’s trademark glasses on the cover of her 1981 album Season of Glass.

Lennon was shot and killed by Mark Chapman as he and Ono returned to their New York apartment together. He was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.