Bill Cosby on Trayvon Martin Tragedy: Blame Guns, Not Race (Video)

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In Bill Cosby's opinion, the Travyon Martin tragedy wasn't about the 17-year-old's race. It had to do with gun laws.

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Cosby, using his finger as a gun to make his point, told CNN in an interview: "This, and what is he doing with it, and who taught him and told him how to behave with this, it doesn't make any difference if he's racist or not racist."

George Zimmerman, who was charged last week with the second-degree murder of Martin, shot the Florida teen in February while he was walking home from a convenience store. Zimmerman cried self-defense; Martin's parents, not to mention millions of outraged observers, said the neighborhood patrolman had racially profiled him.

"You've got to protect yourself in your own home, but I also believe that when you tell me that you're going to protect the neighborhood that I live in, I don't want you to have a gun," Cosby said. "I want you to be able to see something, report it and get out of the way."

Cosby lost his only son, Ennis Cosby, to gun violence in 1997 when he was shot while fixing a spare tire on an isolated road off a Southern California freeway. Michael Markhasev, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, was later convicted of murdering the 27-year-old in a robbery attempt.

Said Cosby: "What is solved by saying, 'He's a racist. That's why he shot the boy.' What solves that?"

Watch his CNN interview below.