Dark Heritage: Collectors' Motives in Question

“I am honored and humbled to announce
the sale of an American Firearm Icon” 

This is sick.
Cliff Pinckard, 'George Zimmerman to auction gun used to kill Trayvon Martin, report says' Cleveland.com, May 11, 2016
Christopher Brennan, Ginger Adams Otis. 'George Zimmerman to auction gun that killed Trayvon Martin' New York Daily News: Thursday, May 12, 2016:

George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty of murder in the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, is auctioning off the handgun involved in the incident, reports say [...]  he has put the 9 mm handgun up for sale in an online auction, which will go live at 11 a.m. Thursday. The opening bid is $5,000. [...]   "What I've decided to do is not cower," Zimmerman says. "I'm a free American. I can do what I want with my possessions."

He is also free to reflect about what he did, the effect it had on others and exercise some discretion. The gun is just a lump of metal, here given 'value' (to those who'd actually buy it) by what has been called 'celebrity contagion', but then that raises the question for whom and why the killer of an unarmed youth is any kind of celebrity. Who would buy that gun and what would they do with it? Perhaps put it in a room with a stolen "Arbeit Macht Frei" notice and slave manacles? Or maybe with a sheriff's badge and other wannabe vigilante memorabilia? Just what are people doing when they collect objects? What is it an expression of? Is this object collectable as a 'link to the past' (ie 2012) or does collecting of old artefacts reflect some other more complex issues? Personally, I'd not have such an object anywhere near my house - let alone put money in Mr Zimmerman's pockets for it. But I'll bet somebody will.

Here you can see the prices of the other KelTec PF9s on Gunbroker, where Zimmerman has posted his with a starting price of 5000 dollars. I wonder what he will write on the COA?

UPDATE 12th May 2016
Sale cancelled, but then on again.

UPDATE UPDATE 18th May 2016
"First and foremost, I would like to thank and give the glory to God for a successful auction that has raised funds for several worthy causes,"  Zimmerman said when he learnt that an auction was finished that enabled him to to cash in on the returned gun. God is almost certainly out tonight celebrating.