Apple have blocked one of the new emojis from reaching our phones

We're not sure why it was there to begin with.

You might remember this announcement about the introduction of a series of new emojis, but it's soon to be one fewer for all of us. While losing an emoji might seem like a bad thing (for instance, you never know when you're going to need to actually send someone a picture of an aubergine) but this one actually makes sense. Unicode, otherwise known as the emoji Gods, have announced that they have banned the rifle emoji. The rifle had originally been given the go ahead but the decision was reversed at a quarterly meeting held in May. Image via Ars Technica According to Buzzfeed, the ban was influenced by Apple, one of Unicode's largest companies, whose members have voting privileges. Apple executives reportedly initiated the debate and said that the rifle emoji would not be supported on its platforms. Neither Apple nor Unicode has elaborated on the reasons why the emoji was taken off the list, but we can imagine it has something to do with recent events in the US. That being said, the pistol/handgun emoji remains and nothing has been said on that matter by either organisation as of yet.