The Target retail chain has become the newest target of anti-gun activists after a loaded real gun was found in the toy aisle of the company's store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

According to a police report, a store employee said that on May 30 he was investigating a possible theft when he noticed a black firearm on top of a superhero toy box.

Local television station WMBF reported that the worker initially thought the gun was one of the toys.

The employee told officers he had seen a man walking around that section of the store repeatedly, although authorities didn't know for certain the same man had placed the gun among the toys, USA Today reported.

Investigators said the 9-mm handgun, which had eight bullets inside, had not been reported stolen.

An effort was underway to study security camera footage and try to determine who left the gun behind.

Days after the incident, nonprofit advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America sent a petition to Target Corp. CEO John Mulligan, asking the retailer to prohibit the open carry of guns in its stores.

A press release issued today said 25,000 have so far signed the petition.

"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 the stores that American moms frequent like Target," said Shannon Watts, the group's founder. "We are grateful that a store employee found this loaded gun and reported it to the authorities -- but we have to acknowledge that this situation could have had a much more tragic outcome."

The Myrtle Beach incident "underscores why it is so important for Target to stand with moms and support the safety and security of our children when we shop in their stores," she said.

C.J. Grisham, president of the group Open Carry Texas, which supports the right to carry firearms, hinted in a statement to the Huffington Post that the gun was planted in an effort focus more pressure on the company.

"Target is currently in the cross hairs of gun control extremists who will stoop to [no] level too low to effectuate their agenda," he wrote in an email released to the media. "Our children are our most precious commodity and intentionally putting them in any kind of danger to exploit a personal agenda is deranged, sick and twisted."

A spokeswoman for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America said in a statement that the insinuation that their organization planted the gun was "utterly ridiculous."