Connecticut Sun player, Gov. Ned Lamont join forces calling for gun control

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (WTNH) — When Olivia Nelson-Ododa came off the bench on Wednesday to help the Connecticut Sun complete a two-game sweep of Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever, her friends and family back home in Winder, Georgia, were undoubtedly cheering her on.

The UConn alum put up eight points, six rebounds, and two blocked shots in the Sun’s thrilling playoff win over the Fever. For the people of Winder, cause for celebration has been in short supply ever since two students and two teachers were shot and killed at the town’s Apalachee High School earlier this month.

“Winder is the epitome of a small town, a small community, a small country town,” Nelson-Ododa told News 8.

It’s the type of town where everyone seems to know everyone else, she explained. When she saw the news that a shooting had happened at Apalachee, she was overcome with panic and grief. Nelson-Ododa attended Winder-Barrow High School across town from Apalachee. She recalled talking with a former coach who sheltered in place at Winder-Barrow.

“One, you feel so helpless in that situation. Just being so far away from my people back home,” Nelson-Ododa said, “but two, you’re just wondering, OK, like, who has been affected? Has anybody died? Is anybody hurt? There’s a thousand questions running through your mind.”

The shooting at Apalachee is the deadliest in the history of Georgia–and the latest in a roll-call of American schools devastated by gun violence. For Nelson-Ododa, the act of violence was a call to action.

“As soon as I was able to get my bearings after that first day, I immediately was like, ‘I have to speak out about this. I have to say something about this and use my platform.’ Because a lot of the people don’t have as big of a platform or reach, and they’re just left to grieve and left to heal,'” Nelson-Ododa said.

Nelson-Ododa leveled sharp criticisms of Georgia’s gun laws, including the state’s system of “permitless carry,” which allows gun owners to conceal carry without needing to go through a permitting process. She took to Instagram, where she has more than 100,000 followers, to call for “policy and change.”

In speaking out on the issue of gun control, Nelson-Ododa has found an ally in Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont. The governor met with Nelson-Ododa on Wednesday afternoon before the Sun took on the Fever in front of a sold-out crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“I love that you’re speaking out–your fellow players speaking out. You’re a role model to a lot of these young people,” the Democratic governor told Nelson-Ododa. “When they see you with a strong point of view, that makes a difference going forward. You’re a public figure, so people listen when you say this. You know, in politics, sometimes they can blur us out. I think your words break through.”

Both Lamont and Nelson-Ododa contrasted Connecticut’s gun laws with Georgia’s. Lamont touted the state’s assault weapons ban, safe storage laws, and red flag laws–noting that many of them were passed on a bipartisan basis.

But the prospects of those policies being passed in Republican-controlled Georgia and nationwide are clouded by a polarized political environment and a Congress that has repeatedly rejected ambitious gun control measures. Connecticut passed major gun reforms-including an assault weapons ban and restrictions on magazine capacity, in the months following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

“I think our politics have become more caustic and more partisan, so I don’t see that happening again today,” said John McKinney, the former Republican Minority Leader of the Connecticut State Senate who worked across the aisle to craft and pass the post-Sandy Hook gun control measures.

McKinney, who has since left office, represented Newtown in the legislature at the time of the shooting.

“I was naively hopeful when we passed those reforms back in 2013 that we would send a message to other states, to Washington, that you can get together and work together,” McKinney said.

Today, a crop of conservative Republicans have emerged as staunch defenders of a more absolutist reading of Second Amendment rights. They typically view measures like assault weapons bans and magazine capacity restrictions as both ineffective and unconstitutional.

“Taking away the right of some innocent person down the street who needs to defend themselves or might, in fact, be the person that intervenes to prevent a terrible tragedy like that, it doesn’t make any sense to me,” said State Sen. Rob Sampson, a Republican who opposed the post-Sandy Hook gun measures and has introduced legislation to repeal them.

Even with Republicans’ opposition, activists like Nelson-Ododa and politicians like Lamont remain hopeful that reforms are still politically feasible.

In 2022, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy worked across the aisle with two conservative Republicans and a Democrat who has since become an independent to pass the first piece of federal gun control legislation in nearly three decades. The bill strengthened background checks on certain gun purchases and funded states with red flag laws.

“Chris Murphy has taken some of the success in Connecticut and tried to explain that down in Congress and pass some gun safety laws there on a bipartisan basis,” Lamont said.

Nelson-Ododa encouraged those who want to see action on gun safety, particularly her legions of young fans, to vote in this year’s election.

“Definitely get out, register, and vote,” she said.

Nelson-Ododa and her fellow WNBA players have been vocal ambassadors for voter registration efforts. The league has seen a surge in interest in recent years, and many of the league’s stars have embraced a tradition of activism.

“We’re a league of activism, and that’s not gonna stop,” Nelson-Ododa said.

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