Elon Musk's X redesigns the water pistol emoji as a gun

Users on Twitter/X have found that after six years, choosing the pistol emoji now shows an image of a gun instead of a water pistol.

The existence of any particular emoji is down to the Unicode Consortium and its annual decisions, rather than specific firms such as Apple, Google, or Twitter. Each company does its own graphic design representation, and today, X has demonstrated that by going against the industry's recognized standards.

According to Emojipedia, Twitter/X has updated its emoji design for the word "pistol," and made it into an image of a firearm.

The pistol appears to have become an official emoji around 2010, and Emojipedia has a chart showing its design from 2013 onwards. Originally, every firm showed the emoji as a firearm, except Microsoft, which designed it as a Buck Rogers-style ray gun.

In 2016, however, Apple changed it from a firearm to a water pistol. It was not the only firearm-related emoji change it did then, either.

By 2018, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook, and Twitter had all agreed with Apple. Each pistol emoji was different, but each one was an image of a water pistol.

Twitter has not announced the change, and due to how emoji appearance is controlled by each platform, the old water pistol emoji still appears on the iOS Twitter app. But adding it through a browser gets the new gun design.

Evolution of gun emojis from 2013 to 2018 by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook, Twitter, transitioning from realistic guns to water pistols.

How the pistol emoji has changed over the years (Source: Emojipedia)

Reportedly, the new design began rolling out in a Twitter/X update on July 18, 2024. In July 2023, the company revamped emojis, including the "Pleading Face" one, but this appears to be the first intentional revision back to a previous design idea.

Separately, the Unicode Consortium has been considering proposals for new emoji. If passed, they will typically be added to Apple devices within a few months.

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37 Comments

xbit 399 comments · 9 Years

About 4 months ago

X is an irrelevance these days.

regurgitatedcoprolite 287 comments · 14 Years

A symbol is *not* the thing being symbolized. Why are people scared of a drawing of a pistol?

Txitter may be "an irrelevance" to Xbit and others, but it is still used by millions.

tyler82 1107 comments · 18 Years

Reminder: real guns are banned at all GOP and conservative rallies, conferences, and conventions.

Stabitha_Christie 576 comments · 3 Years

regurgitatedcoprolite said:

A symbol is *not* the thing being symbolized. Why are people scared of a drawing of a pistol?

Txitter may be "an irrelevance" to Xbit and others, but it is still used by millions.

Who is expressing fear of a drawing of a pistol? Can you point to examples of this?

coolfactor 2339 comments · 20 Years

regurgitatedcoprolite said:

A symbol is *not* the thing being symbolized. Why are people scared of a drawing of a pistol?

Txitter may be "an irrelevance" to Xbit and others, but it is still used by millions.

X needs to remember they have a responsibility to the global userbase, not just Americans. Frequent exposure to anything can desensitize a person, and that can lead to a rewiring of the brain. Guns are a problem in the US. That's a fact, and the problem is growing globally until we, humans, stand against it. Unfortunately, too many can't see past their artificial "rights". Guns for food-hunting is not a problem. Guns for clay-pigeon shooting is not a problem. Guns as the first line of defence in everyday life is a major problem. If you really step back, you can see it's a self-fulling prophecy. Gun "rights" has created a need for guns for protection, and on it goes. It needs to stop.