No emoji is a real gun. Unicode's one pistol is Water pistol, U+1F52B, up top, and Copy takes it. For real gun emoji copy and paste, the closest are the text guns below, such as ︻デ═一, among 71 tiles.
Read the full guide
Find a text gun
Search reads Unicode's names and its search words. Revolver finds the water pistol and the long-barrelled pistol, cannon finds four tiles, and crosshair finds ⌖ and ⯐. The one-line row is gun text art: three classics, then eleven drawn for this page.
What shows up at the other end
Water pistol dates from Emoji 0.6, the oldest version, and has no text style and no skin tones. The one-line guns are ordinary text and take the colour of your words. Rifle, the rifle sprites, Round target and the xiangqi cannons show as an empty box where no font has them.
Tips
For gun symbol copy and paste in a name field, ︻デ═一 is plain text: a bracket, katakana de, a box line and the numeral one.
The five drawings are gun ascii art of toys, each 28 columns or narrower. Paste them where the text is monospaced, or the lines drift.
Questions and answers
Is there a real gun emoji?
No. In Unicode's emoji list, version 18.0, no name holds gun, rifle or revolver, and CLDR, its list of search words, files gun, handgun, pistol and revolver under Water pistol alone. So gun emoji copy paste gets you the toy.
When did the gun emoji become a water pistol?
In Emoji 13.1, by name: pistol became water pistol. The character under it is still PISTOL, with Unicode's note handgun, revolver. Emoji 15.0 then moved it from the tools, beside Crossed swords, to the games, between Kite and Pool 8 ball.
Is there a rifle emoji?
No, though there is a rifle character. U+1F946 RIFLE sits between Goal net and First place medal, with Unicode's note marksmanship, shooting, hunting. Both neighbours became emoji and the rifle did not, so it shows as an empty box where no font has it.
What is the lenny face gun?
Lenny, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), holding a text gun. Each eye is a degree sign, the nose is a letter, the inverted glottal stop, and three combining marks draw the brows and the smile. Five are here, one with a pistol in each hand.
Is there a gun font generator?
No font turns letters into guns. For the army look, the military font generator stamps your words in four stencil fonts. For a name between two guns, copy a one-line gun, type the name, then copy its mirror.
🎯BullseyeU+1F3AF. Unicode names the character direct hit, and CLDR lists target and dart. It is filed in the same subgroup as the water pistol: game. Emoji 0.6.
💥CollisionU+1F4A5. The nearest emoji to a bang. CLDR lists boom for it. Emoji 0.6.
🤠Cowboy hat faceU+1F920. For the quick draw. It takes no skin tone. Emoji 3.0.
💧DropletU+1F4A7. One drop, for a near miss. Emoji 0.6.
🪁KiteU+1FA81. The emoji printed right before the water pistol since Emoji 15.0. Emoji 12.0.
💦Sweat dropletsU+1F4A6. What comes out of it. CLDR lists squirt for this emoji and for no other. Emoji 0.6.
🧸Teddy bearU+1F9F8. The prize at the shooting gallery. Same subgroup again. Emoji 11.0.
🔫Water pistolU+1F52B. The only emoji CLDR files under gun, handgun, pistol or revolver. The character is still named PISTOL; the emoji list called it pistol through Emoji 13.0 and has called it water pistol since 13.1. Emoji 0.6.
🪀Yo-yoU+1FA80. Two places before the water pistol in Unicode's list. CLDR lists toy for this and for the teddy bear, and not for the pistol. Emoji 12.0.
Show all 72 guns (63 more)
The other seven under weapon 7
🏺AmphoraU+1F3FA. A two-handled jar. CLDR lists weapon for it all the same. Emoji 1.0.
🪃BoomerangU+1FA83. The emoji printed right after the pistol in Emoji 13.0, 13.1 and 14.0. Emoji 13.0.
🏹Bow and arrowU+1F3F9. The one emoji that shoots anything. CLDR lists archer and archery for it. Emoji 1.0.
⚔️Crossed swordsU+2694 U+FE0F. The emoji printed right before the pistol through Emoji 14.0. Emoji 1.0.
🗡️DaggerU+1F5E1 U+FE0F. Filed under tools, where the pistol sat until Emoji 15.0. Emoji 0.7.
🔪Kitchen knifeU+1F52A. First of the eight in Unicode's order. It is filed under food, with the dishware. Emoji 0.6.
🛡️ShieldU+1F6E1 U+FE0F. Last of the eight, and the only one for defence. Emoji 0.7.
Gun symbols in plain text 13
🩬Black cannon, Chinese chessU+1FA6C Xiangqi black cannon. The other side's cannon. Unicode's notes say its design typically shows the stone cannon character, which is in the next row.
•BulletU+2022 Bullet. The list dot. Unicode's notes call it a black small circle.
◎Bullseye, the text oneU+25CE Bullseye. Two rings from the geometric shapes. Unicode's notes point from it to direct hit, the emoji.
⌖CrosshairU+2316 Position indicator. Named position indicator; Unicode's notes also call it true position. The nearest thing to a crosshair in plain text.
¬Not signU+00AC Not sign. The same shape pointing left. A logic symbol, which Unicode's notes also call an angled dash.
🩥Red cannon, Chinese chessU+1FA65 Xiangqi red cannon. The cannon piece of xiangqi. Unicode's notes give its name as hóng pào. It shows as an empty box where no font has the xiangqi pieces.
⌐Reversed not signU+2310 Reversed not sign. The smallest text pistol: a barrel and a grip, pointing right. Unicode's notes give its other name as beginning of line.
🥆RifleU+1F946 Rifle. A firearm that is a character but never became an emoji. Unicode's note reads marksmanship, shooting, hunting, and it sits between Goal net and First place medal, which both did. It shows as an empty box where no font has it.
Rifle sprite, pointing leftU+1CC65 Left-pointing rifle. The same sprite facing the other way. It needs the same font.
Rifle sprite, pointing rightU+1CC67 Right-pointing rifle. One of four rifles Unicode files under game sprites, in its symbols for legacy computing. It shows as an empty box where no font has them.
⁍Rightwards bulletU+204D Black rightwards bullet. A list marker again, and the one shaped most like its name.
🞋Round targetU+1F78B Round target. A ring with a solid middle, filed under the heading target symbol. It shows as an empty box where no font has the extended geometric shapes.
⯐Square crosshairU+2BD0 Square position indicator. The same idea in a square frame. Unicode's notes point each of the two at the other.
Gun, as a Han character 7
弾Bullet, as a Han characterU+5F3E CJK unified ideograph-5F3E. Unihan defines it as a pellet, bullet, shot, shell, and marks it as a variant of the traditional form.
炮Cannon, written with fireU+70AE CJK unified ideograph-70AE. Unihan defines it as large gun, cannon; artillery, and files it under the fire radical. The red xiangqi cannon typically shows this one.
砲Cannon, written with stoneU+7832 CJK unified ideograph-7832. Unihan defines it as gun, cannon, and files it under the stone radical.
銃Gun, in JapaneseU+9283 CJK unified ideograph-9283. Wiktionary gives gun, the firearm, as its Japanese meaning, read jū. Unihan's older gloss is ancient weapon, blunderbuss.
枪Gun, in simplified ChineseU+67AA CJK unified ideograph-67AA. Unihan defines it as spear, lance; gun, rifle, with the spear first.
槍Gun, in traditional ChineseU+69CD CJK unified ideograph-69CD. The traditional form, with the same Unihan meaning: spear, lance; gun, rifle.
射Shoot, as a Han characterU+5C04 CJK unified ideograph-5C04. Unihan defines it as shoot, eject, issue forth, emit.
One-line text guns 14
· · · ╺━━┳┓Water pistol, squirting to the left
┏┳━━╸Box-drawing pistol, pointing right
┏┳━━╸ · · · ◎Water pistol hitting a target
┏┳━━╸ ─⊂Dart blaster with a suction dart in flight
┏┳━╸◉ ≈ ≈ ≈Ray gun, firing
╔╦═══─Long-barrelled pistol in double lines
╺━━┳┓Box-drawing pistol, pointing left
▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一The long classic, with a stock and two overlines
一═デ︻The classic, turned to point left
︻デ═一The classic text gun, pointing right
-==7ASCII pistol, pointing left
┏┳━━╸──[ BANG ]Joke pistol with a BANG flag
┏┳━━╸ ○ ° oBubble blaster
┏┳━━╸~~oPop gun, cork on a string
Lenny with a text gun 5
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)┏┳━━╸ · · ·Lenny with a water pistol
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)︻デ═一Lenny with the classic text gun
(⌐■ ͜ʖ ■)︻デ═一Lenny in sunglasses, same gun
╺━┳┓( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)┏┳━╸Lenny with a pistol in each hand
一═デ︻( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)Lenny facing the other way
ASCII toy guns 5
Dart blasterFour spare darts along the top and one in the air, suction cup first. Plain ASCII, 27 columns wide.
Joke pistolThe stage prop: pull the trigger and a flag drops out. Plain ASCII, 27 columns wide.
Ray gunThree rings on the barrel and three lights on the side, from the cover of an old space comic. Plain ASCII, 28 columns wide.
TargetSomething to aim at. Plain ASCII, 14 columns wide.
Water pistol in ASCIIA tank on top, a trigger guard and three drops leaving the nozzle. Plain ASCII, 27 columns wide.
Water pistol combos 12
🛁🔫🦆Bath timeBathtub, then water pistol, then duck. The duck is a real duck. Unicode has no rubber one.
🎯💥Direct hitBullseye, then collision. Direct hit is Unicode's own name for the first character.
🔥💦🔫Fire is outFire, then sweat droplets, then water pistol. A birthday candle is about the limit.
🔫🔫🔫Fully loadedWater pistol 3 times. One for each hand and a spare.
🔫🤠🌵High noonWater pistol, then cowboy hat face, then cactus. The pistol stays on the far side of the hat.
🚫🔫No water pistolsProhibited, then water pistol. For the classroom door.
💥💥🔫Pew pewCollision 2 times, then water pistol. CLDR has no search word pew. This is the workaround.
🚀🔫🪐Ray gun, near enoughRocket, then water pistol, then ringed planet. Unicode has no ray gun, so the water pistol goes to space.
🔫🚰RefillWater pistol, then potable water. Back to the tap. CLDR lists water for both.
🎯🔫🧸Shooting galleryBullseye, then water pistol, then teddy bear. All three are filed in the same subgroup of Unicode's list, game.
💦🔫Water fightSweat droplets, then water pistol. The whole of summer in two characters.
🌱💦🔫Watering the plantsSeedling, then sweat droplets, then water pistol. The fun way.
How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-20, not typed by hand. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers come from emoji-test.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file, in sentence case. No emoji in that file has gun, rifle or revolver in its name; the one pistol is U+1F52B, water pistol, in the group Activities, subgroup game, between kite and pool 8 ball. Its history comes from the older emoji-test.txt files, read on 2026-09-20: it is named pistol in version 13.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/13.0/emoji-test.txt) and water pistol in 13.1 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/13.1/emoji-test.txt); it sits in Objects, subgroup tool, between crossed swords and boomerang through 14.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/14.0/emoji-test.txt) and in Activities, subgroup game, from 15.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/15.0/emoji-test.txt). The search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml, main branch). CLDR lists gun, handgun, pistol and revolver for the water pistol and for no other emoji, weapon for eight emoji, squirt for sweat droplets only and toy for the yo-yo and the teddy bear. The text forms come from emoji-variation-sequences.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt). Every character that is not an emoji was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and a note that names a character uses its name from that file. The character name PISTOL and its note handgun, revolver, the note on U+1F946 RIFLE (marksmanship, shooting, hunting), the other names of the not signs, the position indicator and the bullet, the heading game sprites over the legacy rifles and the notes on the two xiangqi cannons come from NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). U+1F946 has no line in emoji-test.txt. The meanings of the seven Han characters are the kDefinition values of the Unihan database, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Unihan.zip), and the radicals of the two cannon characters are its kRSUnicode values. The Japanese meaning of U+9283, gun, is from Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%8A%83), read on 2026-09-20. Three of the 14 one-line guns are long-standing anonymous text art, assembled here from character names and checked character by character (U+FE3B U+30C7 U+2550 U+4E00, the same string reversed, and U+2584 U+FE3B U+0337 U+033F U+253B U+033F U+2550 U+2501 U+4E00). The other 11 one-line guns, the 5 Lenny lines, the 5 ASCII drawings and the 12 combos are this site's own work; all of them are toys, and no combo puts the pistol beside a person. The Lenny face is the one on this site's text faces page. The Unicode 18.0 and CLDR files were checked on 2026-09-19, and the older emoji-test.txt files and Wiktionary on 2026-09-20. Licence: own work, except three of the 14 one-line guns, which are long-standing anonymous text art (named in the source note above)