The upcoming Unicode 9.0, expected to go live sometime late in June will not be featuring a couple of gun depicting emojis. In the aftermath of the outrageous attacks in Orlando, and the upcoming reforms in order to ensure that such a situation does not arise, Apple has decided to ditch the two emojis. The first emoji was that of a rifle while the other one depicted a man shooting a pistol.
At the discussion of the Unicode members, where representatives of all the major mobile platforms were present, it has been reported by Buzzfeed that Apple took a very strong stand against the emojis. Microsoft joined Apple in withdrawing support for the two emoticons, which automatically translated into support being withdrawn. This means that even on platforms such as Android and BlackBerry, you will not see the emoticon.
It is interesting to see Apple taking a stand against firearms, though there are enough emoticons depicting arms that still exist in the current emoji setup, things like bombs and pistols. There are also several games in the App Store that involve violence especially FPS games. Would Apple perhaps take a stand against those games, maybe even reject games with too much blood bath? It would be something very interesting to wait and see.
