A gun is a strange thing to lose track of. People misplace their keys, their wallet, their phone; people even misplace their cars in busy parking lots. A loaded gun, however, seems like something a person would want to keep an eye on.

None-the-less, an employee at a South Carolina Target found a loaded and abandoned 9mm handgun. An unattended gun that could be taken by anyone who happens upon it is dangerous enough, it’s even worse when the gun remains unattended around children. According to WMBF News, the gun was loaded with live ammunition and was found in the toy aisle on top of a superhero Playskool toy box.

Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman for Target, told The Huffington Post, “The safety and security of our team members and guests is a top priority for Target. We take these matters very seriously and we are partnering with local law enforcement on this incident. Because this matter is under investigation, we are unable to share additional information.”

The gun was found last Friday.

This past Wednesday, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America began a national campaign in an attempt to get Target to begin prohibiting customers from openly carrying guns in their stores.

This is just another situation fueling the current debate on open gun carry. In the past month, pictures and videos of customers carrying guns into chain stores and restaurants began floating around the internet and various new sources. Both sides of the open gun carry and gun control debates are passionate about their beliefs.

“Assault rifles and guns don’t belong in the baby aisle, they don’t belong in the toy aisle — and they don’t belong in any aisle of stores that American moms frequent like Target,” Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, said. “It’s time for Target, a store that American moms flock to, to follow the lead of Chipotle and Starbucks and prohibit the open carry of firearms.”

C.J. Grisham, the president of Open Carry Texas, has asked his members to stop bringing guns into big businesses as an attempt to stop the negative press.

Grisham offered a theory of where the gun abandoned in the Target toy aisle might have come from, “I wouldn’t doubt if a gun control extremist planted the gun there to further his agenda of blaming gun owners for deaths of children. Whoever did it is a despicable excuse for a human being and should be charged with attempted murder and fried in a chair.”

A Moms Demand Action spokeswoman, Erika Soto Lamb, balked at the notion, “Only one organization has a history of bringing loaded guns into Target, it’s not us.”

How do you think the gun wound up in that toy aisle?

[ Image courtesy of Mod Vive ]