{"id":25654,"date":"2016-05-15T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=25654"},"modified":"2016-05-15T12:01:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T17:01:11","slug":"for-sale-george-zimmermans-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2016\/05\/for-sale-george-zimmermans-property\/","title":{"rendered":"For Sale: George Zimmerman’s Property"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Forsale2-300x236\"<\/a>Most law school classes in Property begin with the venerable bundle of sticks metaphor.\u00a0 The \u201cbundle\u201d includes those rights and interests held by the owners of property.\u00a0 The assorted \u201csticks\u201d take on different shapes and sizes, and owners invoke one or more of them to a different extent as the times change.\u00a0 In the opinion of many, the right to sell one\u2019s property has supplanted the right to use one\u2019s property as the most important \u201cstick\u201d of\u00a0 in the present.<\/p>\n

The recent efforts of George Zimmerman to market the gun he used to shoot Trayvon Martin is a particularly distasteful example of an attempt to sell one\u2019s property.\u00a0 While patrolling as part of a self-styled neighborhood watch in a gated community near Orlando, Florida, Zimmerman confronted and fought with the seventeen-year-old Martin.\u00a0 In the midst of the struggle, Zimmerman fired his 9 mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol and killed Martin.<\/p>\n

Zimmerman was tried for the murder in early 2012, and the media absolutely feasted on the courtroom proceedings.\u00a0 Zimmerman and his attorneys successfully argued the shooting was in self-defense.\u00a0 Zimmerman was acquitted in February, 2012, and he publicly delighted in his victory at trial.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, the United States Justice Department at that point returned the weapon to Zimmerman.<\/p>\n

This past week, Zimmerman put the gun up for sale on several gun auction sites.\u00a0 He asked that the bidding begin at $5000 and promised that proceeds from the sale would go toward countering violence by the Black Lives Movement\u00a0 and also toward combatting Hillary Clinton\u2019s anti-gun rhetoric.\u00a0 Initial bidding was brisk, including one bogus bid of $65 million from \u201cRacist McShoot Face,\u201d but when public pressure mounted, the sites removed Zimmerman\u2019s gun offering.<\/p>\n

Oblivious to how offensive the attempt to sell the gun was to Martin\u2019s family and many others, Zimmerman was outraged that his efforts to sell the gun had been thwarted.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve decided not to cower,\u201d Zimmerman told an Orlando television station.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a free American.\u00a0 I can do what I want with my possessions.\u201d\u00a0 Zimmerman\u2019s enthusiasm for guns and violence melded with what he took to be the right to sell his property.\u00a0 After all, in the context of a materialistic market economy everything can and should be sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most law school classes in Property begin with the venerable bundle of sticks metaphor.\u00a0 The \u201cbundle\u201d includes those rights and interests held by the owners of property.\u00a0 The assorted \u201csticks\u201d take on different shapes and sizes, and owners invoke one or more of them to a different extent as the times change.\u00a0 In the opinion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}