Editor’s note: This story contains details of a mass casualty event and gun violence.
Mystics guard Natasha Cloud gave another emotional speech to the media this week following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday that left 21 people dead, including 19 children.
On Thursday, Cloud announced that she feels inclined to go into politics following her WNBA career based on the various issues going on in America now, including gun reform, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights.
“We’re out here preparing for Connecticut, and yes, it’s our jobs, we get paid to do this, but how do you even talk about that with what’s going on in our country?” Cloud said.
The 30-year-old has played for the Mystics since 2015, and she hasn’t officially announced a specific plan of retirement.
“It’s frustrating; it really, really is,” Cloud said. “We could do everything that we can. We can utilize our platforms. We can do marches. We can try to educate people. But, if our representatives don’t do their jobs, if they don’t fulfill their oaths that they took to serve their communities, to not line their pockets, to not worry about their own power, what can we do?”
Cloud mentioned the recent events in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo as examples of why she feels inspired to stand up for what she believes and act on it by going into politics herself.
“It’s at a point now where after my career, I will go into politics because I’m tired of it,” Cloud said. “I’m tired of it being a political game. These are people’s lives. We’re constantly worrying about power, money and all this other s--- that doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. We’re talking about lives. We’re talking about 10-, nine-, eight-, seven-, six-, five-year-old kids. We’re talking about elderly folks just trying to go grab groceries in the only grocery store in their community because why? It’s a lower economic community. It’s a Black community. This was a minority school, for the most part.”
Cloud’s comments on Thursday came after she acted as the team’s spokesperson on Tuesday night for the media. The team decided not to address media that night about the game, but Cloud took that time to call for change and urge for gun law reform.
The shooting at Robb Elementary School marks the 27th school shooting in the United States in 2022 and the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook Elementary in December ’12.
The suspected gunman was an 18-year-old man who abandoned his vehicle and entered the school with a handgun and possibly a rifle, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. The suspect is dead and acted alone, police later said in a press conference.
