A gunman stormed a nursing home in Carthage, N.C., Sunday morning, fatally shooting eight people and injuring three others, including a police officer.

The United States top the world with 250 million firearms owned privately. Loose gun control has made the country a hotbed for gun-related crimes.

The following are major shooting incidents happened in the United States in the past eight months.

2008:

July 27 -- One person was killed and eight others were wounded as a man opened fire inside a church with a shotgun in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Aug. 1 -- A gunman took the lives of three teenagers and injured another near Menominee River in northern Wisconsin.

Aug. 13 -- A man forced his way into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters and fatally shot state party chairman Bill Gwatney.

Sept. 2 -- Six people were shot dead and two were wounded in a series of shooting incidents in Washington State.

Oct. 16 -- One high-school student was killed and three were seriously injured when a gunman shot at them near their school in Detroit, Michigan.

Oct. 26 -- Two people were killed and one was injured in a shooting incident at the University of Central Arkansas.

Nov. 23 -- A teenager shot dead a young man in a shopping mall in suburban Seattle. One person was also seriously injured.

Dec. 14 -- A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume barged into a Christmas Eve party in Covina, a Los Angeles suburb, and opened fire, killing nine people before taking his own life.

2009:

Jan. 24 -- Two people were killed and seven others wounded in a gun shooting spree by unidentified assailants in a house in Wichita, Kansas.

On the same day, two teenagers died and seven others were injured when a gunman opened fire at a group of students outside a nightspot in Portland, Oregon.

Feb. 24 -- At least seven people were injured in a gun shooting incident at the New Orleans' Mardi Gras festival.

Mar. 10 -- A gunman killed 10 people and himself in an hour-long rampage in Alabama that left his mother, grandmother and other relatives dead.

Mar. 15 -- In a vicious shooting case that happened in Miami, the gunman shot four people to death and committed suicide.

Source:Xinhua