Apple changed the image glyph for U+1F52B 🔫 Pistol from a realistic handgun to a Water Pistol in 2016 (iOS 10, macOS Sierra). At the same time, Microsoft changed from a toy or scifi weapon to a pistol. Apple’s change has been met with much criticism. They vetoed a Rifle emoji 🥆 before, because it would change the meaning of some existing expressions and would ambiguate future communication.
The solution would be to give users a choice by introducing a dedicated Toy Gun, Water Pistol or Squirt Gun emoji. On a technical level, this could be achieved without assigning a new code point, but by using variation selectors instead, i.e. VS-1 U+FE00 🔫︀ and VS-2 U+FE01 🔫︁.
Petitions
Apple changed the image glyph for U+1F52B 🔫 Pistol from a realistic handgun to a Water Pistol in 2016 (iOS 10, macOS Sierra). At the same time, Microsoft changed from a toy or scifi weapon to a pistol. Apple’s change has been met with much criticism. They vetoed a Rifle emoji 🥆 before, because it would change the meaning of some existing expressions and would ambiguate future communication.
The solution would be to give users a choice by introducing a dedicated Toy Gun, Water Pistol or Squirt Gun emoji. On a technical level, this could be achieved without assigning a new code point, but by using variation selectors instead, i.e. VS-1 U+FE00 🔫︀ and VS-2 U+FE01 🔫︁.
Petitions