Alarming discovery in Myrtle Beach store revealed a day after campaigners called on Target to firm up its open-carry policy

A 9mm handgun, loaded with live ammunition, has been found in the toy aisle of a Target store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.



The alarming discovery was revealed on Thursday, a day after a grassroots campaign for safer gun laws in America, Moms Demand Action, launched a petition calling on Target to firm up its policy on carrying guns into its stores. The petition has already attracted 25,000 signatures.

Myrtle Beach police are poring through surveillance video captures inside the Target store in Seaboard Street, following reports that a suspicious male was seen walking up and down the toy aisle looking nervous and fidgety shortly before the discovery was made. The firearm was found by a Target worker who initially mistook it for a toy gun, having spotted it lying in plain view in a toy box on a shelf.

A Target spokesman told the local outlet WMBF News that the “safety and security of our team members and guests is a top priority for Target. We take these matters very seriously.”

Moms Demand Action pointed to the Myrtle Beach find as another example of why Target should make public its opposition to weapons being carried in its stores, even where local laws permit that. Current state law in South Carolina permits the carrying of loaded firearms in public but only when the gun is concealed and the owner has a license.

However, the Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, recently proposed changing the law to allow open carrying of guns even without a permit.

Moms Demand Action, a network of mostly women concerned about America’s lax gun laws in the wake of tragedies such as the Newtown elementary school disaster, have been waging a successful campaign to persuade big chains to prohibit the carrying of rifles into their stores. Companies such as Chipotle, Jack in the Box and Sonic have all responded to the call.

Erika Soto Lamb of Everytown, a coalition of gun safety advocates that includes Moms Demand Action, said that the Myrtle Beach incident could have had a tragic ending. "As we've said before, assault rifles and guns don't belong in the toy aisle or in the baby aisle or in the aisles of any store that American moms take their kids to shop -- that's why we are repeating our call on Target today to prohibit the open carry of guns in its stores."

Target did not immediately respond to questions from the Guardian.