Ammunition that is as easy to use as an ATM is now available to Americans in grocery shops in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
According to American Rounds, the innovators of these machines seem like regular vending machines but really employ advanced artificial intelligence face recognition software to verify the buyer’s identity and the legitimacy of the transaction.
Age limitations are at the heart of most US regulations pertaining to ammunition purchases. Under federal law, the minimum age to acquire ammunition for rifles is 18, while the minimum age for pistols is 21.
The quantity of ammo that may be purchased is unlimited.
The machines began appearing at the beginning of July and were already running in six different areas of Oklahoma and Alabama.
Not long after that, a zoning dispute prompted a city council meeting in Tuscaloosa to discuss the machine’s existence, which ultimately resulted in its removal. The shop argues that low sales were the reason for its removal.
The company is currently looking at expanding its operations into Louisiana and Colorado. The company said that the machines will shortly be extended to eight states.
Amid the nation’s alarmingly high rate of firearm-related injuries and fatalities, the US surgeon general proclaimed gun violence a public health emergency in January.
The nation’s top doctor, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued the recommendation as the United States dealt with yet another summer weekend characterized by mass shootings that resulted in the deaths or injuries of scores of people.
The first vending machines were installed in Alabama in 2022, and the state had the fourth-highest rate of gun violence in the nation that year, with over 1,300 lives lost.
The state of Texas, which is home to American Rounds vending machines, has the nation’s highest rate of gun-related fatalities, at more than 4,600 every year.
