SANFORD, Fla. – A gun auction website has apparently pulled a listing offering the gun George Zimmerman used in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
In an interview with Orlando, Florida, TV station WOFL, Zimmerman said he had just gotten the pistol back from the U.S. Justice Department, which took it after he was acquitted in Martin's 2012 shooting death.
"And I thought it's time to move past the firearm," Zimmerman told the station. "And if I sell it and it sells, I move past it. Otherwise, it's going in a safe for my grandkids and never to be used or seen again."
The auction listing on GunBroker.com listed the gun as a 9 mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol. The auction was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Thursday, but was pulled before bidding got underway.
The auction listing also said a portion of the proceeds will go toward fighting what Zimmerman calls violence by the Black Lives Matter movement against law enforcement officers, combatting anti-gun rhetoric of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and ending the career of Angela Corey, the attorney who led the prosecution against Zimmerman.
The listing ended with a Latin phrase that translates as "if you want peace, prepare for war."
When asked what he thought of people who would be opposed to auctioning the gun, Zimmerman said, "They're not going to be bidding on it, so I couldn't care less about them."
Zimmerman, now 32, has said he was defending himself when he shot and killed Martin, 17, in a gated community near Orlando. Martin, who lived in Miami with his mother, was visiting his father at the time.
Zimmerman was acquitted in the February 2012 shooting death of Martin in a case that sparked protests and a national debate about race relations. The Justice Department later decided not to bring a civil rights case against Zimmerman.
Since then, Zimmerman has been charged with assault based on complaints from two girlfriends. In both cases, the girlfriends refused to cooperate and charges were dropped. His estranged wife, Shellie Zimmerman, also accused him of smashing her iPad during an argument days after she filed divorce papers. No charges were filed because of lack of evidence. They were officially divorced in January.
"The Trayvon Martin Foundation is committed to its mission of ending senseless gun violence in the United States," read a statement provided by the office of attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the Martin family. The statement was attributed to Tracy Martin, the teenager's father. "This election season, we are laser focused on furthering that mission. As such, the foundation has no comment on the actions of that person."
Zimmerman said he has received death threats but has decided not to cower.
"I'm a free American," he said. "I can do what I want with my possessions."