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Zimmerman Must Surrender Weapons After Latest Domeswtic Violence Arrest (Picture)
George Zimmerman became a folk hero to some gun lovers after he shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin. Now, following another assault charge, Zimmerman has been ordered to surrender his firearms.
eorge Zimmerman, who became a folk hero to some after he beat a murder rap in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, has been ordered to surrender his weapons after being arrested for a third time for domestic violence.
Mr. Zimmerman, who told the Orlando Sentinel last fall that he’s jobless, homeless and broke, was arrested in Lake Mary, Fla., on Friday night for aggravated assault. Although he has had several run-ins with the law since his 2013 acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin, this was the first time after the verdict that a judge ordered him to surrender his arms.
Weapons were apparently not involved in the Friday night incident, details of which are still sketchy. According to his attorney, Zimmerman was charged for allegedly throwing a bottle of wine at his girlfriend earlier in the week at a residence in Lake Mary, Fla.
The shooting of Trayvon and the subsequent failure of the Sanford, Fla., Police Department to charge Zimmerman polarized America.
Zimmerman encountered the 17-year-old on a rainy February evening and, suspecting him of being a criminal, pursued him into the back of a darkened condo complex. When Trayvon punched and straddled him, Zimmerman pulled out his gun and shot the teenager once in the chest, killing him. A state-appointed prosecutor later indicted Zimmerman, and a year later a six-person jury acquitted him on self-defense grounds.
Zimmerman’s act and trial raised questions in America about liberalized self-defense laws that critics say seem to allow vigilantism against young black men.
But for many in the gun community, Zimmerman had done nothing wrong, and had, in fact, become a poster boy for the responsible but beleaguered gun owner protecting his neighborhood, and himself, under the law. Last March, he drew well-wishers to an autograph signing at an Orlando gun show, and in 2013 he toured the gunmaker that made the pistol he used to kill Martin.
But lately, Zimmerman’s role as gun rights spokesman has become complicated. MOREHERE
