ATLANTA — One week after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, people gathered nationwide Saturday to press for federal civil rights charges against the former neighborhood watch leader, and to call for changes in the nation's self-defense laws.
The Florida case has become a flashpoint in separate but converging national debates over self-defense, guns, and race relations. Zimmerman, who successfully claimed that he was protecting himself when he shot Martin, identifies himself as Hispanic. Martin was black.
For some attendees, particularly those who are black, the rallies seemed as much about those larger issues as about the verdict.
"It's personal," said Cincinnati resident Chris Donegan, whose 11-year-old son wore a hoodie to the rally, as Martin did the night he died. "Anybody who is black with kids, Trayvon Martin became our son."
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