George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman infamous for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012, recently decided to auction off the gun that he used in the murder. Zimmerman, no longer in prison, was able to obtain the weapon from police evidence since the case was considered closed, and promptly began scheming of a way to use it for his own benefit. To use the death of a young boy for his benefit.
Zimmerman stated that his choice had several motivations. The first was to help him "move past the firearm." This translates as, he is trying to capitalize on his actions by making a profit as well as making allies with equally hateful people. If the gun was causing him so much trauma, then there are many ways that he could safely dispose of it and "move on." But no, he puts it up for sale starting at $5,000 and waits.
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He also wanted to join the market of auctioned murder weapons to take a political stance and raise money to fight the Trayvon Martin Foundation and the Black Lives Matter movement. Not to raise money to help law enforcement or community watch groups. No, instead to use Trayvon Martin's murder as a tool to rub in the faces of all the lives it affected.
So if this is such an outrageous occurrence, why are we not hearing about it? Why are we not talking about it? Yes, there have been a few news segments and a handful of articles covering the situation, but for the most part, very few Americans have even acknowledged that this is going on. Regardless of your stance on gun control, activism or even this particular court case, the bottom line is that the death of a human being is being capitalized on for personal gain.
But for some reason, the knowledge doesn't phase us. We consider it sad, a shame and then move on because we accept it as being just the way things are. But try and put yourself in the shoes of the Martin family. Someone kills your child, maybe accidentally or maybe on purpose, faces very few consequences, tries to make a monetary profit off of your loss and the life he took and plans to use the money to fight your family's attempt at bettering the world in memory of your son. Once again, political and social opinions aside, that should and most definitely would break your heart.
We can't keep letting this be our norm. The death of anyone, let alone a child, should never be capitalized on. It's time, way past time, to take a stand and demand that violence not be swept under the rug. To declare that hatred will not be tolerated in our country.
