Flags represent many things. In the national sense, it reflects patriotism, pride, and a sense of unity. With this in mind, across the globe there are a variety of nations’ flags that are distinct just like the people wave them. A striking feature in two national flags are the presence of firearms.

Currently, two UN member states have a gun of some sort in their flags. They are Mozambique and Guatemala.

The first example, Mozambique, located in southeastern Africa, probably has one of the most widely recognized flags on the continent.

Adopted May 1, 1983, there is a horizontal tricolor with green, black, and yellow separated by thin white bands. On the hoist side, a red triangle juts its way out. In the middle of the triangle is a star overlaid with a book, a hoe, and an AK-47. Green stands for the riches of the land, white is peace, black to represent Africa, yellow for the country’s minerals, the book for education, the hoe for the nation’s agriculture, and the AK-47 is for defense and vigilance.

The AK-47 and star symbolism features lingering undertones of Mozambique’s Communist past. Even though a new flag competition happened in 2005, nothing has yet to be done in phasing out the old one.

In contrast to some Mozambicans’ opposition to their national flag due to the feature of the Kalashnikov, Guatemalan support has remained generally consistent. Since 1871, Guatemala has had a flag with three vertical stripes. Two are blue and the middle is white.

In the middle is the state seal that includes a quetzal, the national bird, a parchment scroll that reads Guatemala’s independence from Spain, a laurel crown, and two crossed rifles. The two blue stripes represents the two oceans that border the country while the white is meant to show peace. The quetzal is meant for liberty, the scroll for freedom, the laurels display honor, and the two crossed rifles symbolize defense.

Though the use of weapons as signs of power is nothing new in the sense of vexillological standards, the incorporation of modern technology on flags is a natural representation of progress.