Elon Musk ditched the water gun for a pistol emoji on X. It’s a worrying shot in the culture wars

The updated design might seem insignificant, but depicting real guns has real-world ramifications.

Flick through your emoji keyboard on almost every platform or device, from Apple to Android, and you’ll come across a colorful water pistol among the smiley faces and flags. But not any longer on X, formerly Twitter, which has switched the cartoon-like water pistol for a gunmetal firearm that looks disturbingly realistic.