Bidding in an online auction for the pistol George Zimmerman used to shoot and kill unarmed American teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 topped a total of US$65 million (NZ$95.9m) on Friday, though the amount appeared to be inflated by fake buyers with names such as “Racist McShootFace”.
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Zimmerman said he would use the proceeds from the sale of the gun to fight the Black Lives Matter movement and its violence against police, and to counter what he called “Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric”.
The 9mm gun belongs to George Zimmerman, a onetime neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Martin in 2012 but was cleared of the 17-year-old’s murder by a Florida jury after arguing he acted in self-defence.
Zimmerman was arrested six weeks after the shooting, eventually brought to trial on a charge of second-degree murder and was found not guilty, based on his testimony that he feared for his life when he fired his gun during a struggle with the teenager.
However, fake bidders and trolls – with names like Weedlord Bonerhitler, Racist McShootface, Donald Trump and Tamir Rice, which is the name of a boy, 12, shot by police in Cleveland while carrying a toy gun – appear to be the reason behind the steep price tag.
Zimmerman had previously listed the gun on GunBroker.com, but the auctioneers swiftly removed it, saying: “We want no part in the listing on our website or in any of the publicity it is receiving”. That site, GunBroker.com, said in a statement that it wanted no part in the auction or the attendant publicity.
After reportedly saying it would take down the auction Thursday, United Gun Group released a statement Friday on Twitter apparently walking back that decision.
Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati and James D Julia Auctioneers in Fairfield, Maine, both said Zimmerman made enquiries about handing the gun over to them for sale. His third option, United Gun Group, gave him a chance. Now Zimmerman is trying to auction off the gun.
“The Trayvon Martin Foundation is committed to its mission of ending senseless gun violence in the United States”.
The gun sale is not Zimmerman’s first effort at auction.
“Listings on the GunBroker.com web site are user-generated, exactly like social media posts”, the company said.
The man known for jacking up the price on critical prescription drugs, and risking the lives of thousands of people who couldn’t afford it, said he may buy the deadly weapon Zimmerman put up for auction.
George Zimmerman has every right to sell the Kel-Tec PF9 pistol that he used to shoot his drug-fueled attacker, Trayvon Martin.
“Prospective bidders, I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon”, Zimmerman wrote in the product description. It has recently been returned to me by the Departmentof Justice.
In an interview with FOX affiliate WOFL, Zimmerman said he is “a free American”.
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Zimmerman announced plans earlier this week to sell the gun online after it was handed over to him by the U.S. Justice Department.
