The “King of Instagram,” Dan Bilzerian, is back in the news once again after a brief hiatus. On Tuesday, Bilzerian made headlines again after allegedly kicking a girl in the head and being arrested for conspiring to build a bomb. Talk about a story to tell your friends. Bilzerian was accused of possessing “ammonium and/or cooler and/or aluminum powder” and “ammonium nitrate mix;” the ingredients found in tannerite. Dan’s last stunt—throwing a pornstar off a roof into a pool—gave him around 2 million extra followers on Instagram due to the relentless online publicity the incident brought. Not bad. (All photos are by Dan Bilzerian except where noted. Featured image by Rated RR)

(Image by bluff.com)

Did Bilzerian kick a girl in the head at a Miami nightclub? Well, in the TMZ video it appears to be more of a push. He claims that the girl was trying to interfere with him pulling another girl up on stage. We’ll see how that one turns out and I am in no position to speculate as to whether it was justified. Did he plan on making a bomb? Hardly. When I first heard the news I immediately knew that as a gun owner, Dan was probably just trying to make homemade tannerite—a popular legal substance used in exploding targets. And it turned out to be true. Dan was released from a Los Angeles jail on Wednesday afternoon and charges were dropped. However, the charges were not dropped in Nevada and Dan is due in a Las Vegas courthouse on January 9th. This is hardly the point of this post, though.

Last night I was browsing the CalGuns forums, and I came across a thread about the incident. I was immediately shocked and saddened by the mixed reactions. Some of the commenters were unloading on Dan Bilzerian with self-righteous and divisive comments such as, “Good,” “Eff that guy,” “Dan B is a scumbag.” For a moment I didn’t know if I was on Reddit or CalGuns. But I did know that I had to write a blog post about my take on Bilzerian and his lifestyle. I started this blog with a mission: To unite gun owners, regardless of their beliefs and individual lifestyles. What I saw from some users on CalGuns last night is the opposite of what I believe, and the exact opposite of what the shooting community needs right now.

Most of us know that Dan Bilzerian is a playboy who loves to post pictures of himself with bikini-clad women, lots of money, expensive cars and guns…lots of guns. Although I don’t advocate certain aspects of his lifestyle I respect his freedom to live that way and make his own choices. This country was founded on the principle of personal freedom and it’s disheartening to see people claiming to be so pro-2A and pro-USA bashing Bilzerian for his lifestyle. One CalGuns user, Spyguy, put it perfectly:

“It’s interesting to see how many here don’t give a hoot about the government trampling the rights of a fellow citizen because they don’t agree with that individual’s personal lifestyle.”

Posting insane pics on social media is hardly a valid reason to dismiss how much good Dan is doing for the shooting community. He has almost 7 million followers on Facebook and 5.8 million followers on Instagram. How many of those followers were inspired to get into guns through Dan Bilzerian? Probably a lot. From both social media platforms he posts pictures of machine guns, suppressors and his custom builds. His hyper-masculine approach to social media is fun to follow, entertaining and attractive to young men. This last part is where we should focus the most. Bilzerian has mainstreamed gun culture to the masses in a digital age of celebrities that are afraid to show their support for the shooting community. (Not to mention the fact that Dan has a larger following than the vast majority of other celebrities). He is the King of Instagram right now, and for that we should be thankful.

What about his attitude in real life? I’ve never met The Bilz before but I will tell you this: He has worked with many names in the shooting community and he seems like a laidback, likeable guy in his interviews—which is probably why he seems to be well liked by all celebrities he meets. Dan was also in the Navy and completed BUD/S (Navy SEAL selection process), which means that even though he came from a wealthy family he sacrificed his time for service. And to all the critics: Yes, he did complete BUD/S but got kicked out two days before the graduation ceremony. It’s incredible to me how many are eager to applaud the average person’s military service but then turn around and throw mud on a celebrity’s motives for joining. He made it through BUD/S, which is an admirable feat that most of us will never accomplish. And even if he never did we should still respect his military service, as well as his huge donation to the film Lone Survivor and his continued support of veterans.

(Photo by Rated RR)

It’s understandable that some critics and commenters have religious views which conflict with Bilzerian’s lifestyle, but should we go out and call fellow shooters disparaging names just because they live a different lifestyle than us? No. The critics and their divisive comments are hurting the shooting community more than helping it. You can have strong opinions of something, but when you are criticizing those on your own team I think you should be very careful. Gun owners that claim to love freedom yet were happy to see Bilzerian arrested make me scratch my head. Always remember that we are all in this together, white or black, gay or straight, Christian or Atheist, playboy or not.