Pictured here during a 2018 game, Washington Mystics point guard Natasha Cloud has spoken out about gun violence in the past — and did so again on Tuesday night.

Lorie Shaull / Flickr

The Washington Mystics’ players and coaches spoke out on Tuesday night about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and two adults dead earlier that day.

Addressing the media shortly after a game at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, Acting Coach Eric Thibault and point guard Natasha Cloud took turns addressing the massacre that had happened only hours before.

“It’s insane what we’re doing as a country, allowing this stuff to continue, and obviously being in D.C., it’s people in our backyard who are setting the course for this country,” said Thibault.

Cloud followed, saying she would not be addressing any basketball-related issues.

“We have an issue in this country, not only white supremacy, we also have a gun violence issue,” she said. “And this is us using our platform, right? This game doesn’t matter. [What matters is] the 18 lives — and the number is going up by the minute — the 18 lives that were lost today from senseless gun violence in Texas at an elementary school. We’re talking about our kids not being safe to go to school. And our government is still not implementing sensible gun laws. This isn’t about taking people’s rights away from bearing arms. This is about putting sensible gun laws in so this doesn’t happen again.”

“We cannot continue to make the same mistakes,” she continued. “We cannot continue to allow these things to happen in our country and nothing is being done with it for money, for profit. So I’m calling on everyone: Please put this out, post it, write to your not only local representatives but your federal representatives and tell them you are tired. Tell them that we are tired of lives being lost in this country for senseless shit. It is time to implement gun laws and stop caring about profit and money over people and lives.”

“If you see crazy shit online, please send it to someone, send it to police,” she concluded. “This is absolutely ridiculous at this point.”

The team similarly took a stance against gun violence today on Twitter, sharing a link to the website for Wear Orange, the anti-gun violence campaign taking place June 3-5.

Cloud and her fellow players organized a similar “media blackout” in 2019 in response to a series of shootings outside Hendley Elementary School, not far from where the 2019 champion Mystics play in Congress Heights.

Gun violence has been on the rise in recent years in D.C. While shootings have not been reported inside schools, there have been incidents outside. In January, Anacostia High School was damaged by gunfire, and in April, Sousa Middle School was placed on a 30-minute lockdown after a shooting was reported outside. That same month, a sniper took aim at Edmund Burke School in Van Ness, leaving four injured and himself dead. Just yesterday, a man was shot on Upshur Street NW in Petworth, not far from Roosevelt High School and Powell Elementary School.

On Wednesday, the D.C. Police Union jumped into the debate, tweeting a “reminder” that the D.C. Council “voted to remove police officers from all D.C. Public Schools.” That vote first took place last year, and again earlier this month when lawmakers defeated a move by Mayor Muriel Bowser to keep police in schools. Still, no police have yet been removed from D.C. schools. The council’s plan calls for a gradual phasing out of MPD’s School Security Division through 2025, with the first small decrease in staffing set to take place in July.

Filed Under: general assignment, gun violence, mystics, washington mystics,