For the next Android OS, the gun emoji will be changed to a water gun. Emojipedia is already showing a preview of what the new emoji will look like. With this action, Google is following in the footsteps of Apple, that already changed the gun emoji in 2016.
During the 2016 IOS 10 introduction, Apple changed the gun emoji to a green water gun. Officially, they didn't want to make a political statement, but insiders say that it's a way of protesting against the widespread shootings in the US past couple of years. Months later, Twitter, WhatsApp and Samsung announced they would change to water guns as well.
The graph below gives a clear overview of the gun emoji evolution since 2013.
Source: VRT News
