WASHINGTON — (CNN) Allowing George Zimmerman to sell the handgun he used to kill Trayvon Martin in 2012 has nothing to do with what happened that day and everything to do with enabling a legal transaction, the owner of the auction website told CNN’s “New Day” Monday.
“We are not going to dictate morality to our individuals,” United Gun Group owner Todd Underwood said.
Underwood said as long as his site’s members engage in activities that comply with the Constitution and the law, the site won’t interfere.
Zimmerman listed the weapon with United Gun Group last week after another site rejected his auction.
Trolls using account names such as “Racist McShootface” and “Tamir Rice” drove bidding up to more than $65 million before Zimmerman pulled the auction Saturday due to the fake offers, according to a statement on the site’s Twitter account.
According to the tweet, Zimmerman intends to list the weapon for sale on the site again this week.
The Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol Zimmerman is trying to sell is the one he used to shoot Martin in 2012 after a confrontation with the unarmed teenager in his Sanford, Florida, neighborhood.
Zimmerman called police to report what he described as a suspicious person — Martin — walking in his neighborhood, then disregarded police instructions not to confront him. He said the teen attacked him and he shot in self-defense.
A jury acquitted him in 2013.
In his post introducing the auction, Zimmerman touted the handgun as “a piece of American history.”
It still carries the case number from his trial in silver permanent marker, he said.
In his interview Monday on CNN, Underwood did not address how the site would seek to prevent the fake bidding that plagued the previous auction effort.
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