An auction listing for the gun George Zimmerman used to kill Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has been removed online after a slew of apparently bogus bids.
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Hours later, United Gun Group tweeted that it would post Mr. Zimmerman’s ad. The new link was posted, along with a statement from Mr. Zimmerman.
Zimmerman moved the auction to United Gun Group, an online firearms marketplace, on Thursday after it was rejected by Gunbroker.com.
The Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol was put up for auction on unitedgungroup.com with a starting bid of $5,000.
Other screen names of bidders on the site included “Donald Trump” … and “Tamir Rice”, the name of a black 12-year-old who was shot and killed by Cleveland police in 2014 while playing with a pellet gun.
After an overwhelming amount of attention, GunBroker.com pulled the post just minutes before the auction was set to start at 11 a.m. Thursday and later released a statement the company wants “no part in the listing on our website”.
Mr Zimmerman claimed he has been subjected to death threats since the shooting.
He also mentions “Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric” and pitches the gun sale as the “opportunity to own a piece of American History”, before wishing people good luck in the auction. “We want no part in the listing on our web site or in any of the publicity it is receiving”, the site said in a statement. The gun in question was recently returned to him back from authorities after they kept it for trial purposes.
“I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American firearm icon”, the websites said.
“United Gun Group offers a free platform for law-abiding citizens to buy, sell, trade and discuss firearms and related products”, the group wrote on its Facebook page.
He was acquitted in 2013 of second-degree murder in the shooting, which sparked a national debate over race and self-defense laws.
In both cases, the girlfriends refused to co-operate and charges were dropped.
Martin’s family said the teenager was simply passing through the residential area on his way home from a convenience store.
“I talked to George Zimmerman earlier today and told him that as long as all laws are being followed, he can list the gun on our site”, the site’s founder, Todd Underwood, told the Washington Post on Thursday. And that the Trayvon Martin Foundation was committed to ending senseless gun violence in the United States’.
It added: “This election season, we are laser-focused on furthering that mission. Please visit us at www.trayvonmartinfoundation.org to find out more about the work that we are doing and how you can help”.
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Zimmerman’s sale of the weapon is widely seen by the public as an effort to profit from the unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
