LeBron James Comments on Cleveland-Area Drive-by Shooting

Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James spoke out against violence Thursday night after a string of shootings in the Cleveland area, including one that killed a five-month-old girl.  

WKYC reports the child was struck in the chest during a drive-by shooting in Cleveland Thursday. Earlier this week, Kara Sutyak and Brittany Harris of Fox Cleveland reported two teenagers were shot in a store parking lot. Kaily Cunningham of Fox Cleveland also reported a 10-year-old boy was shot last month.

James took to social media to make a public plea for change:

James followed up those tweets with more thoughts, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin:

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"I know what I see. I know how I feel. Obviously you're not going to be able to take every gun out, I don't know how you can do that. There's so many around now, today. But if there's some stipulations behind it or some penalties, some big-time penalties or rules or regulations about carrying firearms, legal or illegal, people will second-guess themselves."

"There's no room for guns, first of all, but then for violence towards kids or anybody. But, having kids of your own, I see the news go across my phone and I'm sitting there in front of my three kids, so it automatically just hit me. Just getting my voice out there and letting a lot of people know, it's not just in Cleveland. If you seen my message I also hash-tagged '#TheNation' as well, so it's also the whole nation that goes through this as well. We all hurt from it."

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His comments came on the same day 10 people were killed and others were injured during a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, as Dana Ford and Ed Payne of CNN reported.

Few, if any, people are more influential in the state of Ohio than James. He's trying to use that power for the greater good of the community by urging people to make better decisions after a string of deeply saddening events.

The 30-year-old Akron, Ohio, native steered clear of any type of political debate surrounding the issue. Rather, he's focusing on trying to get individuals to consider the consequences of their actions.