Texas-based ammo vending machines criticized by gun control advocates
TEXAS - Gun control advocates are concerned about bullets being sold out of vending machines after a Texas-based company placed its ammunition retail machine in several stores across the country.
"What is happening is everybody is hearing the words: ammunition, vending machine and grocery stores, and they are throwing this all out of context," says America Rounds C.E.O. Grant Magers.
In November 2023, the Dallas-based company American Rounds introduced its first ammunition vending machine in Alabama.
"We are the safest and most secure method of ammunition sales on the market while maintaining the integrity of the Second Amendment," says Magers.
Since the launch of the first machine, the company has placed a total of six ammunition vending machines in stores across the country, with two additional machines opening in Canyon Lake, Texas, this month.
The innovative technology has sparked fear in gun control advocates.
"In a country where guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens, Texas included, and in a state that has experienced some of the most high-profile mass shootings in recent years, expanding gun access and, in this case, ammunition access is the wrong direction," says Texas Gun Sense Executive Director Nicole Golden.
"Ammunition is sold in big retail stores primarily, and it sits on the shelf. It openly sits on the shelf like cereal boxes in a grocery store. OK, they are very small boxes for easy theft. Bad people do bad things. We all as an industry, not just our company, anybody that sells ammunition, anybody that sells firearms, we all have a responsibility to mitigate the risk, and we are doing that," says Magers.
Magers says the state-of-the-art automated dispensers are equipped with the latest AI technology. The machine is a touch screen. You select your product, check out and then insert your ID to verify your age. It uses the same ID scanners as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
"It is looking at all these little facial points characteristics. It makes you smile. You can't hold a picture up there, it is looking for facial movement. It is looking at 92 different points of your face," says Magers.
"I have heard that the company feels that they have got great technology, but being that this is very new to the public, it is kind of hard to feel secure in that, especially when we see gun violence incidents traumatizing our communities every single day. How impervious are these machines to theft? For example, how can we be sure that people can't vandalize them?" says Golden.
"Our machines are double wall steel, two thousand pounds, triple lot machines. They sit inside stores which have been misreported. It has been reported that they are open 24/7. That is not true. They have this idea of this old-fashioned vending machine where you put in a dollar, and you punch your code, you know E5, and then a candy bar drops to the bottom," says Magers.
According to American Rounds, the vending machine system ensures that all transactions comply with federal and local regulations.