A Target store employee made an alarming discovery Thursday when he found a loaded gun in the toy aisle of a South Carolina store.

The employee happened upon the 9mm handgun which was sitting unwrapped on top of a Playskool Marvel Superhero toy box. At first, the worker thought it was a toy until he noticed that the weapon appeared to be loaded.

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The employee told authorities that he had noticed a male shopper hanging around the store area earlier in the day acting suspicious and fidgety.

The popular U.S. chain has been caught in a weapons-related feud between anti-gun organization Moms Demand Action and advocates promoting the open carrying of weapons.

Demonstrators were pictured carrying assault rifles through a Dallas-area Target in March as they pushed for the chain to allow shoppers to carry unconcealed weapons.

Pro-gun protesters also carried weapons into Chipotle, Chili's and Sonic, prompting the restaurant chains to announce no-gun policies last month.

The moves have sparked outrage across the nation and the founder of Moms Demand Action released a statement Thursday saying:

"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. 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, president of the pro-weapons group Open Carry Texas, meanwhile released his own statement pointing to gun control activists as the hands behind the gruesome South Carolina Target discovery.

Grisham told HuffPost that he believed gun control extremist would stoop to any level to promote their agenda and referred to protesters willing to put children in danger to do so as: "deranged, sick and twisted."

Tagsgun control, Target, gun, toy aisle, gun ban, protests