I am not a gun enthusiast like the grandparent commenter. However, the toy gun emoji is an act of editorialization and politicization. Apple (and some others) took an emoji that had a particular intent and changed it to something else, to better suit their ideological views.
The harm is that it disallows citizens from expressing themselves precisely and accurately. It makes it harder to send communication involving guns (for example reacting to a comment with a gun emoji) and it sends guns to a less visible medium (full text). This change is a political stance on guns and therefore editorialization, since it diminishes the opinions of those who back the 2nd amendment. Likewise, taking a hotly debated politicized topic like transgender people, and adding gender neutral emojis, is also editorialization. And likewise, Apple fighting back to prevent a rifle emoji (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/20/apple-rif...) is editorialization.
The harm is that it disallows citizens from expressing themselves precisely and accurately. It makes it harder to send communication involving guns (for example reacting to a comment with a gun emoji) and it sends guns to a less visible medium (full text). This change is a political stance on guns and therefore editorialization, since it diminishes the opinions of those who back the 2nd amendment. Likewise, taking a hotly debated politicized topic like transgender people, and adding gender neutral emojis, is also editorialization. And likewise, Apple fighting back to prevent a rifle emoji (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/20/apple-rif...) is editorialization.
It's not just me noting that these changes are politically motivated. It's pretty clear to everyone. See https://www.wired.com/2016/08/apples-new-squirt-gun-emoji-hi...