Apple replaces pistol emoji with squirt gun, firing up users who think it’s too ‘politically correct’

Apple announced a bunch of new emojis on Monday.

Female police officers, athletes and construction workers, for gender diversity. A rainbow pride flag. Single-parent families emojis.

But one in particular has people really fired up. Apple is replacing its gun emoji with a green water pistol in iOS 10, its new iPhone and iPad operating system coming this fall.

“The change is not coming with much explanation, though — the toy is simply on the list of new emoji alongside the female weightlifter and the rainbow flag,” Fortune noted.

CNN reports that a group called New Yorkers Against Gun Violence began campaigning last year to get Apple to dump its pistol emoji “as a symbolic gesture to limit gun accessibility.”

It set up a website called disarmtheiphone.com and rallied supporters with the Twitter hashtag #DisarmTheiPhone.

The group hailed Apple’s announcement on Monday.

“Apple has stood up to the bullying tactics of the NRA and gun industry by showing that there are many more life-affirming ways to express oneself than with a gun,” said the group’s executive director, Leah Barrett.

A few people who have used the gun and other weaponry emoji have landed in hot legal water. One 12-year-old Virgina girl was charged with threatening her school after she used a gun, knife and bomb emoji in an Instagram post, according to CNN.

In France, a man was sent to prison for three years after using a gun emoji in a text to his girlfriend.

When Unicode, the governing body that selects and oversees emojis, considered an Olympics-inspired rifle emoji, Apple opposed the plan, which was then dropped. A Unicode member told Buzzfeed that Microsoft also opposed the rifle emoji. Since last year Microsoft’s Windows 10 pistol emoji has been a toy gun.

Not everyone is happy, though, about the new Apple water gun emoji, with some people complaining that political correctness is running amok.

Even professional driver Danica Patrick took a shot at Apple.

Then again, others welcome the change.

Before the change comes, people are firing off their last rounds.

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Apple replaces pistol emoji with squirt gun, firing up users who think it’s too ‘politically correct’."