Billionaire Elon Musk today put up a cryptic gun emoji post on his social media platform X, shortly after President Joe Biden spoke on the rising gun violence in the US.
"More children are killed in America by a gunshot than anywhere else," Biden said in a rousing farewell speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"That's why Kamala (Harris) and I are proud to have passed major gun legislation... Now it's time to ban assault weapons," Biden told the gathering, less than a month after dropping out of the White House race against Donald Trump and passing the torch to his vice president.
As Biden spoke, Musk, who officially endorsed Trump last month, dropped an emoji-filled post on X, without elaborating. The emojis were of guns and a man dancing.
"The gun emoji being nerfed in 2016 marked the ascendance of woke mind virus," he said in another post.
In the past, he has described the “woke mind virus" as a threat to “modern civilisation".
ALSO READ | "Two People Have Tried To Kill Me": Elon Musk After Trump Shooting Incident
In 2016, Apple first changed its gun emoji from a realistic-looking revolver into a water pistol following a succession of US shootings. Samsung, WhatsApp, and Google also switched to a water pistol emoji later.
Twitter, now X, had switched to a water pistol in 2018. It, however, recently replaced the "water pistol" emoji - which was depicted as a colorful child's toy - with an emoji depicting an actual gun.
Gun Violence In US
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a website that tracks shootings across the US, more than 10,000 people have so far died this year from "wilful malicious or accidental shootings".
At least 19 people have so far been killed this year in 352 mass shootings in the US. In 2023, 40 people were killed in 656 mass shootings, according to the GVA.
More than 900 children 17 years old and younger, including 154 under the age of 11, have been killed in shootings this year, according to the GVA.