Two New Orleans brothers were booked with 20 counts each of attempted second-degree murder in Sunday's shooting spree.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who strongly promotes the city's tourism industry, including the annual Mardi Gras celebration, said the arrests are the latest evidence of the city's determination to stop the gunplay that mars its image.
"The culture of death and violence on the streets of New Orleans is unnatural, it's unacceptable, and the people of New Orleans have had enough," Landrieu said.
Police said the shootings were believed to be gang related.
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The Dalai Lama, visiting New Orleans for the first time today, expressed condolences to victims.
"Nonviolence is the only way of solving problems," he told reporters. "The real gun control, ultimately it comes here," the Tibetan spiritual leader said, pointing at his heart.
Sunday's shooting happened less than two miles from the popular French Quarter in the heart of the southern city on the Mississippi River.