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George Zimmerman Gun Auction Removed, But Not By Trayvon Martin’s Family

By Laura Meltzer
Published on: 06:25 PST, May 12, 2016

George Zimmerman’s auction to sell the gun that killed Trayvon Martin is officially over.

Just as the auction was set to begin, a note had been placed on the hosting website that said “Sorry, but the item you have requested is no longer in the system,” according to a report done by CNN.

It’s still unclear why Zimmerman’s auction has ended, but according to a report by TMZ, it isn’t because someone has purchased the firearm, and it wasn’t at the request of Trayvon Martin’s family. Prior to being removed from the website, the page with George Zimmerman’s firearm had been viewed more than 185,000 times, according to a report done by USA Today.

George Zimmerman put the gun up for auction early on Thursday morning, with a starting bid of $5,000. The auction was supposed to run the entirety of the day. The attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family’s responded to Zimmerman’s action, according to TMZ.

“It is insulting to this family that he would decide that he would sell the gun that he killed their child with. Think about what that means: This is a gun that took a child’s life and now he wants to make money off of it.”

The firearm was originally set to be auctioned off on Gunbroker.Com. George Zimmerman wrote a statement to accompany the sale, according to News6.

“I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon…The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012.”

Zimmerman also wrote on the site that the Justice Department had returned the gun to him somewhat recently, and it still has the case number written on the firearm. He went on to claim that the weapon was a “piece of American history” and had been “featured in several publications and in current University textbooks,” according to a story by USA Today.

George Zimmerman apparently posted on the auction’s website that several institutions had offered to purchase the gun that had killed Trayvon Martin, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Still, that rumor was debunked when the Smithsonian Institution in Washington released a statement denying that claim.

Zimmerman also personally claimed to turn down several offers for the firearm because buyers planned to use the weapon “in a fashion” he “did not feel comfortable with.” He also said that upon selling the gun, he would donate all the proceeds to an “American Firearm Icon” to go against the violence in the Black Lives Matter Movement against law enforcement officers and to counter “Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric,” reported USA Today. George Zimmerman also told Fox35 of Orlando, Florida, that if he weren’t to sell the weapon, it would be safely put away and “never be used or seen again.”

George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 for the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American high school student, who had been unarmed while getting a pack of Skittles. Since his acquittal, he has had several run-ins with the law, including an alleged road-rage incident and domestic abuse charges.

[Photo by Joe Burbank/Getty Images]

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