(Sigh) Those who are the kind of conservatives who believe the more outrageous the statement, the more cruel the rhetoric, the more of an exercise and celebration of freedom it is should not bother reading this post. I’ve long said we have not heard the end of George Zimmerman, the who killed Africa-American teenager Trayvon Martin (who was armed with an iced tea) and was found not guilty in 2013 via Florida’s stand your ground law. (GO HERE to read TMV posts on the case)
Since then, Zimmerman has had minor legal problems, tried to peddle artwork about His Big Event and become a hero to a segment of the right which was convinced that the teen with the skittles and hoodie was a threat (many Americans remain unconvinced). Rather than a victim of a threat, Zimmerman has begun to emerge as a kind of O.J. Simpson, a figure about whom a national consensus has emerged at variance with the legal system’s verdict and someone who will likely have limited job prospects, unless he comes up with some enterprising plans to raise money.
And now he has one:
He’s putting the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin up for auction — to raise money and donate some of it to defeat likely Democratic Presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It’s a political and personal statement: he can make some big bucks and also show that he’s a member of one of America’s political tribes.
In our politics, increasingly, what someone said or in some cases did in the past means less than hating a member of the enemy tribe, or just hating the other tribe.
George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who was acquitted in the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2013, is selling his gun.
The 9mm pistol that Zimmerman said was used to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 is up for sale in an online auction. FOX 35 spoke to Zimmerman about the weapon and its sale. “I recently received it back from the Department of Justice. They took it after my trial, after I was exonerated,” he said.
We reached out to Trayvon Martin’s family attorney for comment. While they didn’t want to talk about Zimmerman, they gave us a statement which reads, “The Trayvon Martin Foundation is committed to its mission of ending senseless gun violence in the United States. This election season, we are laser focused on furthering that mission. As such, the foundation has no comment on the actions of that person.”
Bids start at $5,000.
The gun involved is a Kel-Tec PF-9 9 mm. It was seized by the Department of Justice after Zimmerman was acquitted but recently returned to him. Zimmerman said the feds wanted to make it inoperable but his attorney was able to prevent them from doing so.
The gun is being auctioned off on the website GunBroker.com. In the description of the firearm, Zimmerman described it as “an American Firearm Icon.” He said he used it to defend himself and end “a brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012.”
Zimmerman also called the gun “a piece of American history” and said the Smithsonian Institute was interested in purchasing it but he did not like how they proposed to treat it.
Zimmerman, who is hiding due to death threats, told Fox 35 Orlando he has received more death threats since putting the gun up for auction. But he said he is not cowering. He told the station, “I’m a free American. I can do what I want with my possessions.”
Zimmerman plans to use some of the proceeds of the sale to fight Black Lives Matter because the group is going after law enforcement officers. He also wants to use the money to help defeat Hillary Clinton because of her “anti-firearm rhetoric” and wants to try to end the career of Angela Corey, the special prosecutor appointed by the state of Florida to go after him.
This is all so typical of the strain of cruelty now embedded in so many facets of American political life and culture.
How many people who were accused for murder — acquitted or not — would a)auction off the weapon that killed someone b)face the prospect that the weapon would really get some big bucks c)announce that part of the money that went to kill someone would be donated to battle a political candidate d) show such shocking a lack of empathy for the family of the person killed with the gun.
But, as I’ve said, I’m sure we have not heard the last of Mr. Zimmerman. He never said he was going to roam the earth looking for Trayvon’s real killer, but he does seem to fit the mold of a certain someone who lost his battle with karma — someone whose nickname isn’t associated with tomato juice.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.