Forum moderator here, to me a gavel is going to look very similar to a hammer, and “ban hammer” is a widely used phrase.
So it reduces our role to the symbol of last resort, while reminding (threatening) members on every post about the fact we sometimes have to ban people. For whatever my opinion is worth, I am most strongly opposed to this, I’d be horrified to log-in one day and see I am now portrayed as this:
Wouldn’t crossed spanners behind the shield for Admin be more indicative of the difference?