Yoko Ono joins America's gun control debate by tweeting image of John Lennon's blood stained glasses

The artist and wife of former Beatle John Lennon, Yoko Ono, has entered America's debate on gun control by tweeting an image of Lennon's blood stained glasses.

The image carried 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."

Posting the tweet, 44 years to the day after the couple wed, she said: "The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience."

John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980, outside his New York apartment.

He was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman who had asked for his autograph only hours before.

Tougher calls for gun control have been ongoing since the mass shooting last year that killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, and the Aurora cinema shooting last July.