Why Apple Removed The Gun Emoji

In 2010, the unicode consortium approved of a new emoji called Pistol. And companies like Apple added it to their platforms. Most of them created realistic designs for the emoji, modeled after real-life pistols. While Microsoft’s looked more like a ray gun from a science fiction movie. But in iOS 10, Apple was the first to update the emoji. From a real pistol, to a plastic water gun. Other companies like Google and Samsung followed suit, but why was this change made?

[vuxluongw]

notice how Microsoft is the only one, not just keeping the emoji, but actually reverse the process. absolute chad move lmfao.

[thecomedian]

Imagine going to jail and telling the big ass guy in your cell that u got arrested for sending a real-looking gun emoji to your classmates.

[xXmlgamingXx]

Instead of fighting against actual gun violence, they fought against an emoji…

[wweirdoww]

AH yes, a water pistol emoji is really gonna stop me for doing bad things

[mannyislikethat]

Meanwhile Microsoft changed it to a real gun 💀🔫

[Unknownuserhtps]

Apple: Removes gun emoji

*Bomb has entered the chat* 💣

[nejc]

The emoji itself is not harmful, it's the human message that portraits the real message.

[lee_geordie]

It’s very hard to connect the dots from a person like myself who lived before the Internet was popular. As kids we used to pretend to play guns with our fingers as kids did back then with no malice or harm to the people we were playing with. So with everyone up in arms about a gun emoji, it seems rather over the top, although I can see how it pertains to the concerns relating to the mass shootings in America recently.

[KanishkOne]

Imagine thinking removing gun emojis solves the underlying problems

[IAmComicallyCartoonyYKnow]

Its funny how everybody else turns it into a toy gun, while microsoft is just like
"yeah actually heres a real gun"

[wooferjr]

Then they might as well ban all movies from using any guns as well. And on top of that, ban any music that references the use of guns.

[jackson]

*gunman walks into Apple store*

Apple employee: "you cant do that, we dont have the gun emoji any more"

*gunman walks out*

[desmondclark]

Long story short, a bunch scary soccer moms were offended.

[bobimbordino]

Don’t blame an object, blame the person doing the crime. If someone is driving drunk & kills somebody, we don’t blame the car.

[VetDragn]

I simply forgot that this whole time, the gun emoji existed

[Luke-zxnx]

0:32 Keep in mind how this graph is meant to deceive you. It makes it appear as if gun deaths are 4.79 times more common (13, 773 vs 2, 874 deaths from the x axis of 26, 000) when in reality they are only 1.38 times, or 38%, more common over the time range of the graph.

[Simple_Galaxy]

Removing the pistol emoji has not saved any lives

[MRDamar]

Middle finger and cigarette emojis: 😂😂

[davidbartley]

most people in the us owns a gun, changing an emoji isn't gonna stop the purchases of guns, hell I got my gun before I went and got my medical card 🤣

[weegie]

Instead of acting upon the problem, they were mad at an emoji

I remember when mentioning guns and not getting screamed at was normal.