George Zimmerman Moves Gun Auction To New Website

FILE - In this July 9, 2013, file photo, George Zimmerman leaves the courtroom for a lunch break his trial in Seminole Circuit Court, in Sanford, Fla. Police officers in Florida say Zimmerman has been involved in a s... FILE - In this July 9, 2013, file photo, George Zimmerman leaves the courtroom for a lunch break his trial in Seminole Circuit Court, in Sanford, Fla. Police officers in Florida say Zimmerman has been involved in a shooting, Monday, May 11, 2015. Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 of fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in a case that sparked protests and national debate about race relations. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, Pool, File) MORE LESS
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Update at 3:14 PM ET

George Zimmerman’s gun auction is back online at a new website because the original auction site could not handle the traffic to the page, Zimmerman told the Orlando Sentinel.

He told the Orlando Sentinel that Gunbroker.com was not “prepared for the traffic and publicity surrounding the auction of my firearm. It has now been placed with another auction house.” His gun is now available on Unitedgungroup.com.

The page for Zimmerman’s gun disappeared from Gunbroker.com around 11 a.m. on Thursday, when the auction was set to go live, according to The Daily Beast. Gunbroker.com did not immediately respond to TPM’s request to comment about why the auction was taken down.

George Zimmerman has decided to sell the gun he used to shoot and kill unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012.

“What I’ve decided to do is not cower,” Zimmerman told Fox 35 Orlando about his decision to sell the gun. “I’m a free American. I can do what I want with my possessions.”

“It’s time to move past the firearm. And if I sell it, and it sells, I move past it,” he added. “Otherwise, it’s going in a safe for my grandkids, never to be used or seen again.”

In his description of the 9mm pistol on Gunbroker.com, Zimmerman wrote that he used the gun in self defense and said that the Justice Department failed in its attempts to “render the firearm inoperable.”

“The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin,” he wrote.

“This is a piece of American History. It has been featured in several publications and in current University text books. Offers to purchase the Firearm have been received; however, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with,” he continued. “The firearm is fully functional as the attempts by the Department of Justice on behalf of B. Hussein Obama to render the firearm inoperable were thwarted by my phenomenal Defense Attorney.”

Zimmerman said that some of the proceeds from the sale of the firearm will be used to “fight BLM violence against Law Enforcement officers, ensure the demise of Angela Correy’s persecution career and Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric.”

An attorney for Martin’s family issued a brief statement to Fox 35 Orlando addressing Zimmerman’s auction.

“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,” the statement reads.

Zimmerman will put the pistol up for auction on Thursday morning with a starting bid of $5,000.

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