The United States (US) was rocked by two shootings on Wednesday, one at a hospital in Arkansas and the other at a school in Oakland.
The incident in Arkansas took place at the St Vincent North Hospital in Little Rock, during which one person died, as per NBC News.
The police were rushed to the spot at around 10 am, and the hospital was placed under a lockdown.
At around 12:30 pm, the police confirmed that one suspect, 24-year-old Raymond Lovett, was in their custody and has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault.
The person who died from a gunshot wound was identified as Layton Whitfield, the Sherwood Police said.
6 Injured in Oakland School Shooting
In Oakland, on the other hand, at least six adults were injured during a shooting at the Rudsdale Newcomer High School, which is said to have occurred at around 12:45 pm, AFP reported.
According to its website, the school serves immigrants, aged between 16 and 21, who fled violence in their home countries. However, whether this had anything to do with the shooter's intention is still unclear.
Officials have also not stated whether any of the injured persons are students.
The Oakland Police said that they had not nabbed anybody in connection with the incident yet, but were in search of at least one suspect.
Oakland Assistant Police Chief Darren Allison said that two of the victims of the mass shooting had suffered life-threatening injuries, and are currently undergoing treatment.
Incidents Come 3 Months After Passage of Significant Gun Law
The incidents on Wednesday come just three months after President Joe Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first significant federal bill on gun control in the country in decades.
Biden said that while the bill fell short of what was really needed to curtail gun violence and mass shootings in the US, it would "save lives."
However, the law falls short of banning the sale of assault weapons.\
"While this bill doesn't do everything I want, it does include actions I've long called for that are going to save lives," Biden had said.
Some of the major provisions of the law are:
Establishing a national background check system with enhanced background checks for buyers under 21
$11 billion in mental health funding
$2 billion for school safety programs
Additional funding for states to bring "red flag" laws allowing courts to remove weapons from those considered a threat
Closing the "boyfriend loophole" by keeping guns away from domestic-violence offenders if they are not married
The US Senate had passed the bill in a 65-33 vote with 15 Republicans siding with the Democrats.
The passage of this bill had come close on the heels of a brutal mass shooting in a Texas elementary school, that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers. The incident had sparked nationwide anger, with people demanding legislative steps to curb gun violence.
In the same week, however, the US Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law aimed at curtailing the right to carry firearms in public, exposing the divide in the country over the significant issue even further.
On 4 July, six people were killed and 37 were wounded after a lone gunman opened fire at an Independence Day parade in Chicago's Highland Park. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) had said that the shooting was the 15th mass killing of the year.
Also, over 300 incidents of shootings have been reported so far in the US in 2022 alone.
(With inputs from NBC News and AFP.)
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