6 ms·

Apple and the Gun Emoji

59 points by firloop 10y ago

dade_ 10y ago
This doesn't matter. Under no circumstances are normal people saying bring a gun to a park with Emojis. Only in the US is this even a possibility, and even then, good gunlovng Americans would specify which type of gun to bring. If I need an automatic, a shotgun, a rifle, a good American friend always provides clarity! This article is silly. If you use a gun in a emoji you are not being serious, which means a toy gun is the perfect icon. Americans, please go deal with your lunatic sociopath running for office. For the love of God and all that is holy, my anus is bleeding!
- morgante 10y ago
  The issue isn't that people are necessarily seriously asking people to bring guns. It's that people might use a toy emoji which others interpret differently. These two messages would be interpreted very differently: > I'm going to get you back. :toy_gun: > I'm going to get you back. :real_gun:
  - dade_ 10y ago
    No, they won't. This article is classic faux Reddit hivemind outrage. I have never even used the gun emoji once. have you?
    - morgante 10y ago
      First of all, I don't think the article is outraged. I'm certainly not. I think it was a well-intentioned move by Apple with unforeseen consequences, not some grand evil plan. Secondly, you're entirely missing the point of my comparison. I have never used the real gun emoji, but I might certainly use a toy gun in fun. The problem is that the composer might be trying to send a fun message, but it would be received negatively. To be clear, I really don't care either way about the existence of a gun emoji. If Apple wants to remove it from the keyboard, that's fine and if they want to keep it that's also fine by me. My concern is with silently introducing a non-compatible change: it's analogous to silently making a dramatic change to the side effects of an API method without changing the name or announcing the change. Why are you so defensive of this move? What advantage is served by switching out the emoji instead of simply removing it form the keyword? Do you think this emoji exists on the Apple keyboard without ever being used?
      - mcphage 10y ago
        > I have never used the real gun emoji, but I might certainly use a toy gun in fun. The problem is that the composer might be trying to send a fun message, but it would be received negatively. Is there a class of people that you're both (a) comfortable enough joking about shooting with toy guns, yet also (b) slightly nervous about them coming after you with a real gun?
        morgante 10y ago
        I could easily imagine it happening. Maybe you played a prank on your boyfriend. It's entirely possible that he would get you back by shooting a water gun at you. But it's also possible that he might get really mad about it and threaten you.
- bballer 10y ago
  > "your lunatic sociopath" should be > "your lunatic sociopaths" ftfw Your right though, we should let Apple control and dictate how language is used (since emoticons are now a part of modern day language) since they obviously know best. Btw, you can't legally bring an automatic weapon to a public place. Also nice to know you literally can't speak to just the topic at hand without bringing completely irrelevant topics into the conversation just to spew your political biases, which it seems is what Apple is trying to do, maybe you are just two peas in a pod.
  - dade_ 10y ago
    Sorry, this is about America and guns, which means that it is absolutely relevant. For the record, I am Canadian, love guns, but I don't think every fool should be entitled to his tool of rage. All Apple is doing is making an emoji into a toy. If you want to talk about guns, you can do that by spelling it out. If I say, lets bring and AR15 to the gun range, I know what you mean and Apple has done nothing to stop, change or control my speech.
    - bballer 10y ago
      See the comment by teddyh: > The unicode code chart¹ actually says “PISTOL = handgun, > revolver”, and the reference glyph (with a larger version > on page 4) is pretty clearly a Beretta M9.² > ① http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf#14 http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf#14 > ② http://www.beretta.com/en/m9/ http://www.beretta.com/en/m9/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 This is Apple breaking from standards to enforce a political agenda, and while we may disagree this is still Apple "changing" your speech, albeit not stopping or controlling it. Weapons aren't the only thing that can be used as a tool of rage, as we witnessed in Neice France just recently when a packing truck was responsible for more deaths than many acts of gun violence put together. Hiding guns and their representations from the public wont stop criminal elements from abusing them, what we need is laws that punish those who use or brandish guns outside of self defense in a very severe manner. As in your threaten someone or brandish a weapon during the act of a crime and you go to jail for life, case closed. Gun violence would cease overnight and we could still respect the rights granted by the constitution.
bballer 10y ago
Is there even logic behind this kinda of change? I just do not get it. It's easy to say that's just Apple shoving PC down their users throats, but what does a representation of a gun and PC have to do with each other? A gun is a real thing, in the real world, and has real world consequences, masking it as a water gun won't change this fact. Does Apple just want to be every ones big brother and decide what is best for us by coddling everyone into a land of rainbows and unicorns?
- trav4225 10y ago
  Don't you know? If we pretend bad things don't exist, they'll simply be wished out of existence.
err4nt 10y ago
This is the most reasonabke solution to the direction apple has taken. I've been anooyed that you can totally say 'water pistol‘ or 'water gun' with the current pistol emoji like this: water+pistol, but you cant say firearm or gun with fire+water pistol.....that just turns into fire-water-pistol? Napalm? But I hadnt realized the potential danger in this change until this post!
unethical_ban 10y ago
Does anyone doubt it's a clearly political decision that is also technically worst-practice? Does anything think this is beneficial to society to remove the gun emoji? That it will prevent any violence?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
bluejekyll 10y ago
This makes a ton of sense. Good article. This is directly analogous to API deprecation issues.
grenoire 10y ago
I think this is a ridiculous change by Apple, going completely against the idea of Unicode and consistent character displays across different devices. Author's suggestion is good, but I don't think that this was a necessary change by any means in the first place.
- matt4077 10y ago
  I am 100% sure that it is 97% irrelevant, 2% within Apple's creative agency and 1% tots ok 'cause no gun > a gun is a pretty good heuristic.
  - ensignet 10y ago
    cause no gun > a gun is a pretty good heuristic So you're into whitewashing over the realities of general human experience, in favour of feel-good-huggle-cuddly-numpkins?
    - Manishearth 10y ago
      Guns are not part of the "general human experience" in most countries.
      - a_t48 10y ago
        What metric are you defining "most" by?
      - lwhalen 10y ago
        Check your privilege.
- cooper12 10y ago
  Unicode only says that it's a gun, and only recommends how it should look. IME's are free to make the emojis look however they want at their discretion. Note Samsung's saltines instead of chocolate chip cookies for "U+1F36A Cookie". Consistency is laudable, but we live in a world with multiple cultures, meanings, and contexts, so in the end consistency might actually be more harmful and reductionist.
jaredklewis 10y ago
Interestingly, the bomb, sword and dagger emoji remain in their natural form. Apple should probably also thoroughly cleanse the iTunes Store for movies showing guns, lest some unsuspecting child has his purity irrevocably tainted by the image of a firearm. Such stimulation might lead him to commit homicide, such is the simple relation between the two. Sigh. Edit: sarcasm guys, geeeez
- cooper12 10y ago
  Can we stop with this hyperbole anytime something is changed? What do emoji have to do with the iTunes store? You're assuming an awful lot about Apple's intentions with stuff like "such stimulation might lead him to commit homicide, such is the simple relation between the two".
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    Can we stop with this hyperbole anytime something is changed? No. Monkeying with the language and symbols we use for self-expression is defensible only if you think of 1984 as a progressive manifesto.
    - cooper12 10y ago
      Yep, changing the look of an emoji is tantamount to state-sanctioned censorship and oppression. Ridiculous statements like these only spawn more ridiculousness. Try grounding your arguments in reality rather than an Atlas-sized persecution complex and that stupid Orwellian meme. Private companies are free to do what they want, the first amendment only applies to the government.
      - cmdrfred 10y ago
        Pick one, it's important or it's not. Anti-gun people seem to posit it's an important move to change the lexicon by removing the symbol and replacing it with a water gun as that will have an effect on the public consciousness. Someone points out that this sort of looks like newspeak from 1984 (replacing words that make people feel bad with things that are incomprehensible) and all of the sudden it's a trivial unimportant move that will have no effect.
teddyh 10y ago
Question for those who are fine with what Apple did: What if Apple had implemented a text filter which changes all occurences of the word “pistol” to “water pistol”. Would that be fine too? Also, what if the Unicode Consortium later adds an emoji for “WATER PISTOL”? How should it be distinguished from the “PISTOL” emoji? Or should they be identical?
- alayne 10y ago
  I don't think this is a slippery slope towards text modification. Note that there are already problems with emoji being different across platforms. Here is a short article from the GroupLens people at the University of Minnesota: http://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-miscommunication-using-emoji/ http://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-mi... I'm not a huge fan of Apple's general "safe" content approach either despite being an Apple user, but to me this is a tiny and insignificant political statement relative to all the issues they have with the app store/iTunes content and Beats 1 censorship.
  - michaelcampbell 10y ago
    > I don't think this is a slippery slope towards text modification. Well that's good, because that's not what he was asking. He was asking if this WERE done in text rather than pictures, would the outcry be any different?
    - alayne 10y ago
      It's not the same.
      - teddyh 10y ago
        Well, it kind of is. A pistol is not the same as a water pistol. An image of a pistol is likewise not the same as an image of a water pistol.
- cooper12 10y ago
CharlesW 10y ago
I'd love to know who made this decision, apparently giving it less thought than what they were going to have for lunch. Whoever it was doesn't understand how communication works, and should probably not be in charge of decisions like this. Interestingly, it's a giant middle finger not just to gun nuts, but to millions of people on both sides of debates about gun control, the militarization of law enforcement, etc. (Not to mention a kinda creepy form of infantilization.)
- dilap 10y ago
  Probably came straight from the top, i.e., Tim Cook. (I say this without knowledge or evidence, but it is the kind of thing he would care about and do.)
  - TenOhms 10y ago
    What other constitutional protections should Apple attack next?
rdtsc 10y ago
Next up someone then sends an invitation to a pool birthday party asking people to bring some water toys. They look through list of emojis, pick what looks like a water gun. Everyone with non-Apple devices wonder why is their host asking them to bring guns to a pool party.
- cam_l 10y ago
  Or worse yet, vice versa.. waterpistol toting apple fanboi drug cartels.
techdragon 10y ago
This is about the most reactionary, sarcasm and knee jerk fuelled batch of comments I've seen on HN in some time. There are a few insightful ones peppered throughout the comments here, but its easily lost in the noise. If this thread was a recipe I'd say it needs Less 2nd amendment discussion and lots more Unicode technical discussion. :-/
dade_ 10y ago
When I say lunatic sociopath, I mean Donald Trump.
- bballer 10y ago
  And Hillary isn't? Have you been living under a rock?
  - dade_ 10y ago
    I don't think she is a lunatic. The current situation is dreadful.
    - bballer 10y ago
      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-...
      - dade_ 10y ago
        http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/furious-b-c-magnate-says-hes-caught-up-in-vicious-smear-campaign-against-clinton-charities http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/furious-b-c-magnate...
- dang 10y ago
  Not here, please. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12240849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12240849 and marked it off-topic.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
teddyh 10y ago
This change was actually a community suggestion: https://openradar.appspot.com/26897761 https://openradar.appspot.com/26897761 (Source: https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/761223785076797442 https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/761223785076797442)
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  And they're certainly not the first to do so, and in great company: http://emojipedia.org/microsoft/windows-10/pistol/ http://emojipedia.org/microsoft/windows-10/pistol/
  - teddyh 10y ago
    That was actually Microsoft’s original design, but they changed it to a realistic gun almost a week ago: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/04/microsoft-new-real-gun-emoji/ https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/04/microsoft-new-real-gun-e... Also, I would not call one single vendor “in great company”; before Apple, Microsoft was the only vendor showing anything else than a normal modern handgun (except Android, which in 4.4 had what seems to be an old blunderbuss pistol: http://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/pistol/ http://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/pistol/ but Android changed it back to a revolver in Android 5.0).
trav4225 10y ago
Han shot first. ;-)
sksixk 10y ago
I wonder if they considered having the pistol pointed upward or diagonally. It does seem menacing when it's pointed straight to the left (or right). Not so much if it were pointing in a different direction.

59 points by firloop 10y ago

dade_ 10y ago

This doesn't matter. Under no circumstances are normal people saying bring a gun to a park with Emojis. Only in the US is this even a possibility, and even then, good gunlovng Americans would specify which type of gun to bring. If I need an automatic, a shotgun, a rifle, a good American friend always provides clarity! This article is silly. If you use a gun in a emoji you are not being serious, which means a toy gun is the perfect icon. Americans, please go deal with your lunatic sociopath running for office. For the love of God and all that is holy, my anus is bleeding!

morgante 10y ago
The issue isn't that people are necessarily seriously asking people to bring guns. It's that people might use a toy emoji which others interpret differently. These two messages would be interpreted very differently: > I'm going to get you back. :toy_gun: > I'm going to get you back. :real_gun:
- dade_ 10y ago
  No, they won't. This article is classic faux Reddit hivemind outrage. I have never even used the gun emoji once. have you?
  - morgante 10y ago
    First of all, I don't think the article is outraged. I'm certainly not. I think it was a well-intentioned move by Apple with unforeseen consequences, not some grand evil plan. Secondly, you're entirely missing the point of my comparison. I have never used the real gun emoji, but I might certainly use a toy gun in fun. The problem is that the composer might be trying to send a fun message, but it would be received negatively. To be clear, I really don't care either way about the existence of a gun emoji. If Apple wants to remove it from the keyboard, that's fine and if they want to keep it that's also fine by me. My concern is with silently introducing a non-compatible change: it's analogous to silently making a dramatic change to the side effects of an API method without changing the name or announcing the change. Why are you so defensive of this move? What advantage is served by switching out the emoji instead of simply removing it form the keyword? Do you think this emoji exists on the Apple keyboard without ever being used?
    - mcphage 10y ago
      > I have never used the real gun emoji, but I might certainly use a toy gun in fun. The problem is that the composer might be trying to send a fun message, but it would be received negatively. Is there a class of people that you're both (a) comfortable enough joking about shooting with toy guns, yet also (b) slightly nervous about them coming after you with a real gun?
      - morgante 10y ago
        I could easily imagine it happening. Maybe you played a prank on your boyfriend. It's entirely possible that he would get you back by shooting a water gun at you. But it's also possible that he might get really mad about it and threaten you.
bballer 10y ago
> "your lunatic sociopath" should be > "your lunatic sociopaths" ftfw Your right though, we should let Apple control and dictate how language is used (since emoticons are now a part of modern day language) since they obviously know best. Btw, you can't legally bring an automatic weapon to a public place. Also nice to know you literally can't speak to just the topic at hand without bringing completely irrelevant topics into the conversation just to spew your political biases, which it seems is what Apple is trying to do, maybe you are just two peas in a pod.
- dade_ 10y ago
  Sorry, this is about America and guns, which means that it is absolutely relevant. For the record, I am Canadian, love guns, but I don't think every fool should be entitled to his tool of rage. All Apple is doing is making an emoji into a toy. If you want to talk about guns, you can do that by spelling it out. If I say, lets bring and AR15 to the gun range, I know what you mean and Apple has done nothing to stop, change or control my speech.
  - bballer 10y ago
    See the comment by teddyh: > The unicode code chart¹ actually says “PISTOL = handgun, > revolver”, and the reference glyph (with a larger version > on page 4) is pretty clearly a Beretta M9.² > ① http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf#14 http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf#14 > ② http://www.beretta.com/en/m9/ http://www.beretta.com/en/m9/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9 This is Apple breaking from standards to enforce a political agenda, and while we may disagree this is still Apple "changing" your speech, albeit not stopping or controlling it. Weapons aren't the only thing that can be used as a tool of rage, as we witnessed in Neice France just recently when a packing truck was responsible for more deaths than many acts of gun violence put together. Hiding guns and their representations from the public wont stop criminal elements from abusing them, what we need is laws that punish those who use or brandish guns outside of self defense in a very severe manner. As in your threaten someone or brandish a weapon during the act of a crime and you go to jail for life, case closed. Gun violence would cease overnight and we could still respect the rights granted by the constitution.

bballer 10y ago

Is there even logic behind this kinda of change? I just do not get it. It's easy to say that's just Apple shoving PC down their users throats, but what does a representation of a gun and PC have to do with each other? A gun is a real thing, in the real world, and has real world consequences, masking it as a water gun won't change this fact. Does Apple just want to be every ones big brother and decide what is best for us by coddling everyone into a land of rainbows and unicorns?

trav4225 10y ago
Don't you know? If we pretend bad things don't exist, they'll simply be wished out of existence.

err4nt 10y ago

This is the most reasonabke solution to the direction apple has taken. I've been anooyed that you can totally say 'water pistol‘ or 'water gun' with the current pistol emoji like this: water+pistol, but you cant say firearm or gun with fire+water pistol.....that just turns into fire-water-pistol? Napalm? But I hadnt realized the potential danger in this change until this post!

unethical_ban 10y ago

Does anyone doubt it's a clearly political decision that is also technically worst-practice? Does anything think this is beneficial to society to remove the gun emoji? That it will prevent any violence?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

bluejekyll 10y ago

This makes a ton of sense. Good article. This is directly analogous to API deprecation issues.

grenoire 10y ago

I think this is a ridiculous change by Apple, going completely against the idea of Unicode and consistent character displays across different devices. Author's suggestion is good, but I don't think that this was a necessary change by any means in the first place.

matt4077 10y ago
I am 100% sure that it is 97% irrelevant, 2% within Apple's creative agency and 1% tots ok 'cause no gun > a gun is a pretty good heuristic.
- ensignet 10y ago
  cause no gun > a gun is a pretty good heuristic So you're into whitewashing over the realities of general human experience, in favour of feel-good-huggle-cuddly-numpkins?
  - Manishearth 10y ago
    Guns are not part of the "general human experience" in most countries.
    - a_t48 10y ago
      What metric are you defining "most" by?
    - lwhalen 10y ago
      Check your privilege.
cooper12 10y ago
Unicode only says that it's a gun, and only recommends how it should look. IME's are free to make the emojis look however they want at their discretion. Note Samsung's saltines instead of chocolate chip cookies for "U+1F36A Cookie". Consistency is laudable, but we live in a world with multiple cultures, meanings, and contexts, so in the end consistency might actually be more harmful and reductionist.

jaredklewis 10y ago

Interestingly, the bomb, sword and dagger emoji remain in their natural form. Apple should probably also thoroughly cleanse the iTunes Store for movies showing guns, lest some unsuspecting child has his purity irrevocably tainted by the image of a firearm. Such stimulation might lead him to commit homicide, such is the simple relation between the two. Sigh. Edit: sarcasm guys, geeeez

cooper12 10y ago
Can we stop with this hyperbole anytime something is changed? What do emoji have to do with the iTunes store? You're assuming an awful lot about Apple's intentions with stuff like "such stimulation might lead him to commit homicide, such is the simple relation between the two".
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Can we stop with this hyperbole anytime something is changed? No. Monkeying with the language and symbols we use for self-expression is defensible only if you think of 1984 as a progressive manifesto.
  - cooper12 10y ago
    Yep, changing the look of an emoji is tantamount to state-sanctioned censorship and oppression. Ridiculous statements like these only spawn more ridiculousness. Try grounding your arguments in reality rather than an Atlas-sized persecution complex and that stupid Orwellian meme. Private companies are free to do what they want, the first amendment only applies to the government.
    - cmdrfred 10y ago
      Pick one, it's important or it's not. Anti-gun people seem to posit it's an important move to change the lexicon by removing the symbol and replacing it with a water gun as that will have an effect on the public consciousness. Someone points out that this sort of looks like newspeak from 1984 (replacing words that make people feel bad with things that are incomprehensible) and all of the sudden it's a trivial unimportant move that will have no effect.

teddyh 10y ago

Question for those who are fine with what Apple did: What if Apple had implemented a text filter which changes all occurences of the word “pistol” to “water pistol”. Would that be fine too? Also, what if the Unicode Consortium later adds an emoji for “WATER PISTOL”? How should it be distinguished from the “PISTOL” emoji? Or should they be identical?

alayne 10y ago
I don't think this is a slippery slope towards text modification. Note that there are already problems with emoji being different across platforms. Here is a short article from the GroupLens people at the University of Minnesota: http://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-miscommunication-using-emoji/ http://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-mi... I'm not a huge fan of Apple's general "safe" content approach either despite being an Apple user, but to me this is a tiny and insignificant political statement relative to all the issues they have with the app store/iTunes content and Beats 1 censorship.
- michaelcampbell 10y ago
  > I don't think this is a slippery slope towards text modification. Well that's good, because that's not what he was asking. He was asking if this WERE done in text rather than pictures, would the outcry be any different?
  - alayne 10y ago
    It's not the same.
    - teddyh 10y ago
      Well, it kind of is. A pistol is not the same as a water pistol. An image of a pistol is likewise not the same as an image of a water pistol.
cooper12 10y ago

CharlesW 10y ago

I'd love to know who made this decision, apparently giving it less thought than what they were going to have for lunch. Whoever it was doesn't understand how communication works, and should probably not be in charge of decisions like this. Interestingly, it's a giant middle finger not just to gun nuts, but to millions of people on both sides of debates about gun control, the militarization of law enforcement, etc. (Not to mention a kinda creepy form of infantilization.)

dilap 10y ago
Probably came straight from the top, i.e., Tim Cook. (I say this without knowledge or evidence, but it is the kind of thing he would care about and do.)
- TenOhms 10y ago
  What other constitutional protections should Apple attack next?

rdtsc 10y ago

Next up someone then sends an invitation to a pool birthday party asking people to bring some water toys. They look through list of emojis, pick what looks like a water gun. Everyone with non-Apple devices wonder why is their host asking them to bring guns to a pool party.

cam_l 10y ago
Or worse yet, vice versa.. waterpistol toting apple fanboi drug cartels.

techdragon 10y ago

This is about the most reactionary, sarcasm and knee jerk fuelled batch of comments I've seen on HN in some time. There are a few insightful ones peppered throughout the comments here, but its easily lost in the noise. If this thread was a recipe I'd say it needs Less 2nd amendment discussion and lots more Unicode technical discussion. :-/

dade_ 10y ago

When I say lunatic sociopath, I mean Donald Trump.

bballer 10y ago
And Hillary isn't? Have you been living under a rock?
- dade_ 10y ago
  I don't think she is a lunatic. The current situation is dreadful.
  - bballer 10y ago
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-...
    - dade_ 10y ago
      http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/furious-b-c-magnate-says-hes-caught-up-in-vicious-smear-campaign-against-clinton-charities http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/furious-b-c-magnate...
dang 10y ago
Not here, please. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12240849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12240849 and marked it off-topic.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

teddyh 10y ago

This change was actually a community suggestion: https://openradar.appspot.com/26897761 https://openradar.appspot.com/26897761 (Source: https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/761223785076797442 https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/761223785076797442)

Mithaldu 10y ago
And they're certainly not the first to do so, and in great company: http://emojipedia.org/microsoft/windows-10/pistol/ http://emojipedia.org/microsoft/windows-10/pistol/
- teddyh 10y ago
  That was actually Microsoft’s original design, but they changed it to a realistic gun almost a week ago: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/04/microsoft-new-real-gun-emoji/ https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/04/microsoft-new-real-gun-e... Also, I would not call one single vendor “in great company”; before Apple, Microsoft was the only vendor showing anything else than a normal modern handgun (except Android, which in 4.4 had what seems to be an old blunderbuss pistol: http://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/pistol/ http://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/pistol/ but Android changed it back to a revolver in Android 5.0).

trav4225 10y ago

Han shot first. ;-)

sksixk 10y ago

I wonder if they considered having the pistol pointed upward or diagonally. It does seem menacing when it's pointed straight to the left (or right). Not so much if it were pointing in a different direction.