Seller Offers Gun Range Targets Meant to Resemble Trayvon Martin

This post has been updated to include additional information about the seller of the paper targets.

A Florida entrepreneur said he had sold out of gun range targets depicting a faceless, hood-clad figure holding an iced tea and a bag of Skittles meant to look like Trayvon Martin.

"The response is overwhelming," the seller told Orlando's WKMG news team over e-mail. "I sold out in two days." The station did not identify the seller, and said it found the ad on a popular firearms auctioning website.

A cached version of the GunBroker.com webpage belonging to a seller named "hillerarmco" from Virginia Beach, Va., shows the paper targets being sold in packs of 10 for $8.

The description of the product reads:

Everyone knows the story of Zimmerman and Martin. Obviously we support Zimmerman and believe he is innocent and that he shot a thug. Each target is printed on thick, high quality poster paper with a matte finish! The dimensions are 12"x18" ( The same as Darkotic Zombie Targets) This is a Ten Pack of Targets.

A Twitter account with the same name has been discontinued. A Google search on "hillerarmco" shows a company called the Hiller Armament Company. The domain for Hillerarmco.com is no longer active.

Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer as he returned to his father's girlfriend's house after a trip to the convenience store. Martin was unarmed, but was carrying a bag of Skittles, a can of iced tea, and his wallet after he was shot by George Zimmerman, the watch volunteer. The shooting, and the local police's handling of it, have become major news stories and sparked national conversations around racial profiling and gun laws.

In the aftermath of the shooting, protesters calling for Zimmerman's arrest donned hoodies and waved Skittles at protests around the country.

According to WKMG, the seller said that that the "main motivation was to make money off the controversy." The seller said that he was a supporter of Zimmerman who thinks "he is innocent and that he shot a thug."  

Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's attorney, told the news station that he felt the targets were offensive. "This is the highest level of disgust and the lowest level of civility," O'Mara said. "It's this type of hatred -- that's what this is, it's hate-mongering -- that's going to make it more difficult to try this case."

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Comments

[Mark Leenheer]

12:04 AM on 04/20/2013

I thought he was carrying an icepick and other burglar tools in his pack? Is that not true or does this story just focus on the skittles and iced tea? That said the shooting targets are def in bad taste and send the wrong message.

[Stephen Lapage]

06:36 PM on 04/14/2013

Making it a crime....? Its freedom of speech...

[wanttruth]

02:56 PM on 04/14/2013

Disgusting idea by the business owner! I pray that the Martin family will continue to remain strong. There's NO justification for the heartlessness shown to them and their dead teen son Trayvon Martin.

Justice for Trayvon!!!

[Sandra Allan]

12:31 PM on 04/14/2013

How sick can you get?? Thats so disrespectful to Treyvans family...I will never understand the way some people think or even live in this world! This target is beyond demeaning to Treyvan. I hope his family sues the guy who made this! And the Police Authority who used this in target practise. Unbelieveable!!!!! To the guy who created this...hope you crawl back in the hole you came from! Prayers to Treyvans family! PLease don't lose hope,there are still good people out here.

[Biggredd]

07:59 AM on 04/14/2013

So it's normal target the police would use with Skittles and a can of tea added and not an actually image of TM!

[boblovesjean2010]

12:40 PM on 06/21/2012

I want some of those! I wonder if Bass Pro Shops will let me hang them! (and use them) for target practice!

[marleyandme]

05:03 PM on 06/19/2012

everyone calls him a kid? he was over 6 feet tall and wearing a hood. this guy g.z. is the neighborhood watchman in a gated comunity that has had a string of break ins. i dont know about you but i live in a small neighborhood that has just started a crimewatch as well for the same reasons... people being robbed. we look for people that dont belong in our neighborhood. and trevon was visiting from miami because he was suspended from school, and hangin with the wrong crowd.... if you think a 17 year old kid cant beat you down think again...I know some kids that would strong arm rob you... smarten up!

[lineaker]

09:53 PM on 04/13/2013

But even you called him a 17yr old kid. Does what you wear change the fact that you are a kid? Or does you height change the fact that you are a kid.

Getting your butt whopped by a kid does not change the fact that you were whopped by ... yes... a KID.

[Biggredd]

08:02 AM on 04/14/2013

Dominique Lang (14yo) and De'Marquise Elkins (17yo) treat these two as kids and see what you get!

[Biggredd]

08:00 AM on 04/14/2013

Lets see how long that takes to get deleted.

[Alvin Anyiah]

06:18 PM on 05/31/2012

Its sad how much some people hate blacks. SMH....

[altpa16603]

07:58 PM on 06/18/2012

It's even a bigger shame how most colored people hate the white people.

[Alvin Anyiah]

11:47 PM on 06/20/2012

Not saying it is right but.......If your ancestors were beat, killed, raped, enslaved and treated like cattle by a certain race for NO reason other than the fact that they were black maybe your kids would hate them too

[Lkdub7]

09:19 AM on 05/29/2012

I wrote this at the beginning of the end for Trayvon... With HP's permission, This one is for you kid. If you feel it enough, help me share it with the world - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F1vbUdrQFMQ

[skupp69]

10:46 AM on 05/23/2012

Shouldn't there also be a target resembling the shooter? This seems to be a little on the backward side. People cashing in on this kind of character slamming are pitiful. In reality a deceased person has no character,it ends with them. Shame the way the public thinks. Each and everyone has their own opinion and is fully entitled to think and do as they please as long as it does not go too far.

[NancyY]

10:57 PM on 05/24/2012

It's already gone too far. The NBPP (New Black Panther Party) put out a price on Zimmerman's head, a man who is a husband and, I believe a father of at least one child who lived in the neighborhood. Citizens see this type of mess as an affront to their own safety and their right to protect their households, and their communities.

[Tamiko Neely]

02:29 PM on 05/25/2012

It went too far when Zimmerman pursued and confronted an unarmed person simply walking in his neighborhood. He should never have pursued or confronted Trayvon. Period.

[RepublicanDepression]

07:20 AM on 05/23/2012

This sick, shameful product is proof that the GOP is lying when they claim that racism is over and there is no more need for laws protecting people on the basis of race.

More evidence that the voter laws being enacted now are voter suppression laws unconstitutionally aimed at preventing voting by minorities.

[Jonny Five]

11:30 AM on 04/14/2013

You know Obama is a 1%er right

[Philster90]

11:24 AM on 05/22/2012

WThis is the coolest thing I have ever seen! I want one!

[Aeryn Reid]

12:59 PM on 05/21/2012

Plenty of things are "tasteless", but freedom of expression to make a few dollars is well-protected. The same argument protects that subset of rap music that is violent and misogynistic. This is neither surprising nor alarming. ;)

[NancyY]

11:12 PM on 05/24/2012

Interesting take on the situation; but you are absolutely correct!

[mickcastillo]

12:24 AM on 06/07/2012

Hence the reason why some genres of rock are given the same treatment!

[TheSarge]

03:22 PM on 05/18/2012

I have been using "hoodie" targets for years. The British were using similar targets that matched a common IRA ensemble in the 70's.The hoodie or hooded sweatshirts as we called them before they became chic, has been a criminal accessory for decades. It has nothing to do with any demographic BS, it is a simple inexpensive disposable piece of clothing with an identity masking attachment. Well they used to be inexpensive until someone decided that the words "FuBu & NorthFace" were worth an extra 40 bucks.

I will never stop using a target style simply because someone was offended by it. But you will never find a target on my range where the target is carrying skittle's and tea. My targets represent actual threats...

[Debbie Zimmerman]

06:05 AM on 05/20/2012

http://ta-moe.deviantart.com/art/Red-hood-fighter-276276935. Feel threatened?

[wolflover3825]

08:46 AM on 05/20/2012

By a page that does not exist?

[TheSarge]

10:20 AM on 05/20/2012

Threatened... No... In Love..Yes

[blessed457100902]

07:06 AM on 05/23/2012

You and Adolf Hitler share the same mentality he didn't see nothing wrong with killing Jews so he keep on until he reached 6million plus. You got a right to be a fool he sure proved that also.

[blessed457100902]

10:20 PM on 05/17/2012

The cocktail drugs GZ was on, prescribed, were more apt to make aggressive and delusional which is why he described TM as acting weird or unless he was laying his bait down? His history of aggression towards others seems to stem from those drugs which one of them is highly addictive narcotic agent that produces massive mood swings. So if it comes down to drugs being let in the case GZ surely have no chance to convince anyone he doesn’t have mental issues!

[NancyY]

02:16 AM on 05/23/2012

Oh - so now all of a sudden you are a doctor? And you got your MD from where? HuffPost? Okay. Zimmerman was being HARMED, and he acted out in self defense. If Trayvon had made better choices, he would still be alive today. Zimmerman lost him when Trayvon ran away, but Trayvon decided to go after this smaller white-looking guy and do his BOW (Black On White) crime thing. Didn't turn out too well for Trayvon, did it?

[blessed457100902]

06:38 AM on 05/23/2012

Nancy Y, I do believe if Marcus Welby MD ya know the white
guy who played a doctor on TV told you what I said you would believe it. See
your bias isn’t easily as hard to detect as you think it is, you have the traditional
racist upbringing and no matter how much perfume you use it permeates through
the screen.  Here’s a life lesson for you
before it’s too late for you with God. Look back at every mistake you made thus
far in your life and say “but for the grace of God go I” as you evaluate the ignorant
comment you made against TM. Your desire to hero worship GZ isn’t disgusting it’s
ungodly!

[jl13]

03:03 AM on 05/23/2012

I find it interesting that Martin's friend on the phone described the reason for his suspicious behavior, he was darting around to stay out of the rain.

[blessed457100902]

06:39 AM on 05/23/2012

I don't he was 17. Were you or are you perfect at 17? then there is your answer.

[blessed457100902]

06:15 PM on 05/23/2012

I don't he was 17 not 27.