The pistol and other weapon emojis have landed people in trouble with the law. A 12-year-old in Virginia was charged after allegedly threatening her school in an Instagram post that used a gun, knife and bomb emoji. A teen in Brooklyn was arrested for posting a police emoji with pistol emojis pointing at his head. The charges were later dropped.
A French court ruled a pistol emoji could constitute a death threat, sentencing a man to three months in prison for texting the gun to his ex-girlfriend.
Last year, an organization called New Yorkers Against Gun Violence started a campaign to get Apple to replace its version of the pistol emoji. It launched a site, disarmtheiphone.com, and sent an open letter to remove the firearm emoji “as a symbolic gesture to limit gun accessibility.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member