TIMELINE: Deadly mass shootings in United States

(Reuters) - Thursday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that individual Americans have the right to own guns is likely to revive the debate over gun ownership and violent crime -- a debate that is periodically ignited by mass shootings in the country.

Following is a chronology of some recent deadly mass shootings in the United States:

April 16, 2007 - Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia, became the site of the deadliest rampage in U.S. history when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.

December 5, 2007 - A gunman opened fire in a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, killing eight people and wounding five, before fatally shooting himself, police said.

December 9, 2007 - A Colorado man shot dead four people at a Christian missionary training center and a church, then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the rampage.

February 2, 2008 - Five women were shot dead in a clothing store at a suburban Chicago shopping center in what police said appeared to be a botched robbery.

Feb 7, 2008 - A gunman killed two police officers and three city officials when he stormed a city council meeting in a St. Louis suburb. The gunman was later shot dead by police.

February 8, 2008 - A nursing student fatally shot two women and killed herself in front of classmates at Louisiana Technical College in the state capital, Baton Rouge.

February 14, 2008 - A man fired into a lecture hall packed with students at Northern Illinois University, killing five people and wounding 18 before shooting himself dead.

June 25, 2008 - A worker at a plastics plant in Kentucky shot and killed five people inside the factory and wounded a sixth before killing himself.

(Writing by Paul Grant, Washington Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Frances Kerry)