The gun used to kill Florida teenager Trayvon Martin is apparently up for sale in an online auction.
The listing on gunbroker.com includes a description purportedly written by George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch captain acquitted by a jury in the teen’s 2012 shooting death. The killing sparked a national conversation about race and “stand your ground” laws.
“This is a piece of American History,” Zimmerman says in the post, which has not been verified by NBC News.
The firearm is listed as a 9 mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol, and goes on sale Thursday morning with bidding starting at $5,000.
In the post, Zimmerman, 32, said the Justice Department had recently returned the gun to him, and he has received offers from people who want to purchase it or put it on display: “However, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with.”
A portion of the auction’s proceeds are supposed to “fight BLM (Black Lives Matter) violence against Law Enforcement officers” as well as “ensure the demise of … Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric.”
Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for president, said in a speech in April to the National Action Network that Zimmerman should never have had a gun.
Zimmerman killed Martin after he saw the unarmed 17-year-old walking through his gated Sanford community on Feb. 26, 2012, and did not recognize him. He confronted the boy, leading to an altercation and the shooting. Zimmerman claimed self-defense.
The death of Martin, who was African-American, set off a wave of protests.
Zimmerman at his 2013 trial was found not guilty of a second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Neither Zimmerman nor his defense attorney immediately responded to requests for comment about the auction.
In an interview with FOX affiliate WOFL, Zimmerman said he is “a free American. I can do what I want with my possessions.”
“And if I sell it and it sells, I move past it,” he told the station. “Otherwise, it’s going in a safe for my grandkids never to be used or seen again.”
An attorney for the Martin family released a statement reaffirming that the Trayvon Martin Foundation is “committed to its mission of ending senseless gun violence in the United States” and has “no comment on the actions of that person (Zimmerman)[.]”
Zimmerman’s transition out of the public eye has not been without incident, and last year he was shot at by another driver during a confrontation on a Florida road. He was also arrested on assault charges against his girlfriend, although the charges were later dropped.
Zimmerman filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC News in 2012. A judge dismissed that claim in 2014. Zimmerman appealed, but a judge ruled against him.
