Knotted Gun Sculpture

The Knotted Gun Sculpture at the United Nations stands as a powerful symbol of nonviolence and reflects the values Quakers have long upheld through their quiet but steady presence at the UN.

A symbol of peace at the heart of power

Outside the United Nations headquarters in New York stands a striking bronze sculpture: a revolver, life-sized, yet impossible to fire. Its barrel twists into a firm knot, rendering the weapon harmless. Titled Non-Violence and created in 1980 by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, the sculpture was conceived as a tribute to John Lennon following his assassination. It calls not only for an end to gun violence, but for a global culture of peace. The artwork has subsequently been informally known as the 'Knotted Gun'.

While not a Quaker work, the Knotted Gun Sculpture encapsulates ideals at the heart of the Quaker Peace Testimony: disarmament, restraint, and the refusal to respond to violence with more violence. For many Friends, it serves as a silent witness — a reminder that peace begins when people and nations choose to lay aside weapons, and that true power lies in reconciliation, not force.

Quakers at the United Nations

Since 1947, the Society of Friends has maintained a presence at the United Nations through the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), with branches in both New York and Geneva. QUNO provides a unique form of faith-based diplomacy, offering safe, informal spaces for dialogue and fostering relationships across ideological and political divides. Rather than lobbying for narrow interests, QUNO is guided by Quaker testimonies of peace, equality, and truth.

QUNO’s work spans many of the UN’s most urgent concerns: disarmament and peaceful conflict resolution, the rights of children affected by armed conflict, climate justice, humane migration policy, and the promotion of human rights. With no agenda beyond the promotion of peace and justice, its influence is quiet but meaningful, often taking place behind the scenes. Friends who work with QUNO are frequently present in meetings where trust, neutrality, and spiritual depth are needed most.

A sculpture that speaks for the spirit of Friends

The Knotted Gun sculpture, while secular and universal, echoes the central convictions of Friends. It embodies not only a refusal to kill, but an act of imaginative transformation: something once designed to take life has been reshaped into a symbol of hope. Just as the sculpture turns a tool of death into a statement of peace, so Quakers seek to turn conflict into conversation, fear into friendship, and despair into a shared commitment to justice.

There is resonance too between the sculpture’s visibility and the Friends’ quiet visibility at the UN. The statue stands openly in front of one of the world’s great centres of power; QUNO sits, often quietly, in rooms of negotiation where the future is shaped. Though their methods differ, both call for the world to consider: What if we chose peace, not violence? What if we knotted the barrel before the first shot was fired?

A message made clear, a witness made living

The sculpture’s message needs little interpretation. One glance at the impossibly twisted revolver is enough to provoke reflection. It speaks plainly and powerfully: that violence is not inevitable, and that peace can be imagined — even fashioned — by human hands. In this way, it shares a kinship with the Quaker witness: direct, sincere, and rooted in deep conviction.

Quakers at the United Nations work with similar clarity of purpose. Their presence reminds us that peacemaking is not abstract. It is practiced, day by day, in conversations, in decisions, in the courage to stand aside from the machinery of war. The 'Knotted Gun' may not be a Quaker object, but it is surely a Quaker symbol — one that continues to point the world, silently but unmistakably, toward peace.

Image(s) from AFSC