LeBron James advocates for stiffer gun laws

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio _ LeBron James pushed for stiffer gun laws Friday in the wake of another child killing in Cleveland.tmpplchld James spoke out on social media after an infant was shot and killed in Cleveland on Thursday, the same day 10 died in Oregon during another school shooting.tmpplchld “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,” James said Friday following Cavs practice. “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.”tmpplchld Three children have been shot to death in Cleveland just in the past month. James spoke out first on his Twitter account after a 5-month-old girl was shot and killed in a drive-by Thursday.tmpplchld “Obviously it’s not the first time that it’s happened, but it’s been happening a little bit too much recently,” James said Friday. “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. ... It’s also the whole nation that goes through this as well. We all hurt from it.”tmpplchld President Barack Obama similarly lashed out at the gun violence epidemic on Thursday following the shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, but James said he didn’t hear Obama’s remarks. James has been active in helping children in the community through his foundation, but that focus has primarily been on education. James, however, left open the possibility of eventually shifting that focus.tmpplchld “Part of the education program we’re doing is keeping those kids off the street and keeping their situations that’s maybe bad and turning them into good,” James said. “I think what we’re doing is controlling some of the violence. Some of these kids might be in violent situations, violent areas or violent homes and we’re trying to keep them away from that by having that program that I’ve set up.tmpplchld “I feel like if we can do our part, through my foundation and what we do, then maybe it can possibly bring the number of percentages down from, I don’t know, 20 percent to 15 to 10. Hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)tmpplchld Visit the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) at www.ohio.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld