The United States Of The Pathetically Outraged
Violence against an emoji lost the Houston Rockets' social media manager his job.

Yes, really.

Ben Dreyfuss writes at Mother Jones that this tweet -- with the tiny gun emoji aimed at the tiny horse emoji -- ultimately killed the Rockets' Chad Shanks' employment:

As Dreyfuss put it:

The internet being the stupid place that it is, a thousand crybabies immediately began to cry. Oh pray for the emoji horse! How dare the stupid Twitter account joke about horse slaughter! Wah wah wah!

...Is merely mentioning the reality that horses are shot when they are lame outrageous? If you are outraged by the fact that horses are shot when they are lame, be outraged about the fact that horses are shot when they are lame, not someone remarking on the fact that horses are shot when they are lame.

A commenter explains for the outrage spewing:

AAAbond (Dan Wohl)
Uh, it's a visual metaphor (or just a regular one if you consider emoticons as written language). The Rockets were about to 'put down' the other team (not really kill them, though; you can relax now).

Another explains for sports know-nothings like me:

DRoseDARs
The Dallas Mavericks' mascot is... a horse. The emoji gun is being held to the head of... a horse.

Dreyfuss insightfully observed about the outraged:

Outrage allows people to define themselves in opposition to something, which is much easier than defining yourself on your own.

Yep. That's pretty much the deal.