George Zimmerman in 2013. (Photo by Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)
Read: How to Cash in on Trayvon Martin
In what is best described as an elaborate and nasty troll job, notorious Floridian George Zimmerman on Thursday tried to auction the gun he used to kill black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. As part of his sales pitch, the 32-year-old—who was acquitted of murder in a local trial and never charged by the feds—apparently wrote, “I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon.”
Videos by VICE
But within hours of posting the listing Thursday morning, Atlanta-based gun e-commerce site GunBroker.com had removed it, and the site’s social media channels went dark. (VICE has reached out to the broker for comment and will update this post if we hear back.)
Bidding on the gun was set to start at $5,000 [€4,420], and there was a “reserve price” for the highest bidder. “Now is your opportunity to own a piece of American History,” the post read, with the author—presumably Zimmerman—adding, “Many have expressed interest in owning and displaying the firearm including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, however, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with.”
The Smithsonian has since denied ever offering Zimmerman a price for the bizarre murderbilia. What remains to be seen is how badly this guy wants to sell the thing.
“I’m a free American. I can do what I’d like with my possessions,” Zimmerman, who’s had frequent run-ins with the cops since the killing, said Wednesday in an interview with an Orlando-based radio station.
