‘Game of Thrones’ Star Lena Headey Goes off About Recent Mass Shootings: ‘BAN GUNS NOW’

Game of Thrones star Lena Headey joined the call for gun law reform this week in an impassioned plea on Instagram. The actress lashed out at lobbyists and lawmakers in the U.S. for their inaction, and encouraged other non-U.S. citizens to speak out on the issue. Headey’s posts were met with a mix of support and condemnation.

“BAN GUNS NOW,” wrote Headey, who played the evil queen Cersei on HBO’s hit fantasy series. “DO SOMETHING. STOP LETTING PEOPLE DIE.”

Headey Headey hails from the U.K., where gun laws are much more strict. However, she is well-known in the U.S. for her work on Game of Thrones, as well as other popular franchises such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and The Purge, among many others.

“DON’T TELL ME I’M NOT AMERICAN, I’M ALREADY AWARE OF THAT,” she went on. “I’M HUMAN. I CARE ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS. WHEN ABUSE OF POWER, THAT DRIVES INSANITY, WHICH RESULTS IN ENDLESS HUMAN CASUALTY, AS THE WORLD WATCHES. HOW DO WE REMAIN SILENT.”

Headey was almost certainly referring to the recent spate of mass shootings in the U.S., including the El Paso shooting in Texas and the Dayton shooting in Ohio. Both left many innocent people dead in states where assault rifles are legal and relatively easy to obtain by adults.

The U.S. is unique in this regard, as most other large world powers regulate guns more carefully. Headey pointed this out in a subsequent post, when she took a screen shot of a fan’s comment.

“In 1996, Dunblane in Scotland… A man walked into Dunblane Primary School with a lot of guns,” they wrote. “He killed 16 children and 1 teacher before shooting himself. In 1997 we passed the Firearms act. In over 20 years it has not happened again.”

In her caption, Headey called this comment “sense,” though her follower continued to sound off on either side of the issue below that. Meanwhile, Headey continued her commentary, posting a video of a baby bat eating a slice of watermelon, calling it an “accurate representation of me trying to figure out WTF is happening in our world.” Below that, she included a long and pointed hashtag.

“If you own a gun and you’re not a d- I still love you just wish you didn’t value owning a gun more than your fellow humans,” it read.

Finally, Headey’s final post on the matter was a poem by Cleo Wade, written in stylistic bold letters on a white background.

“And may the appalling hate of other fuel you to step more deeply into your work as a warrior of love, justice, and freedom in the fight against oppression and bigotry,” it read.

Headey just wrapped up nearly a decade as one of TV’s most iconic villains, bringing a depth and complexity to the character of Cersei that many fans had not perceived in the books. She has three new projects in the works now, including the upcoming Netflix prequel series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The series hits Netflix on Aug. 30.