Paper, plastic or ammo? Company introduces ammunition vending machines at grocery stores

Machines require customers to present a photo ID for age verification and submit to a facial recognition scan to match their face with their ID

Shoppers at some grocery stores in the South can pick up their eggs and a box of ammunition in the same trip, thanks to a Texas company's bullet vending machines.

American Rounds, based in Richardson, Texas, developed machines — which the company prefers to call "automated retail machines" — that sell ammunition. The first of them was installed in an Alabama grocery store in 2023.

Since then, seven other machines have been installed in grocery stores in four states. Four have opened at Super C's Marts in Oklahoma, and two at Lowes Markets in Canyon City, Texas. According to the company's CEO Grant Magers, requests for his vending machines are on the rise, the Associated Press reports.

Magers told the AP that the company has "over 200 stores" that are waiting to receive a machine. He said interest in the machines has largely come from rural communities where ammunition retailers are in short supply.

The machines require customers to use a touch screen to select their ammunition and then verify their age using a photo ID. The scanner inside the machine is the same scanner that the TSA uses to verify photo IDs at airport security.

An American Rounds ammunition vending machine installed in a Fresh Value grocery store in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (AP)

Once an ID is verified as belonging to someone 21 or older, facial recognition software checks the customer's face against the ID and prompts the customer to pay for their ammunition. Then a brand new box of ammunition drops from the machine.

Magers has insisted that his machines are not only a safe way to purchase ammunition, but that it's more safe than most other methods of buying rounds.

“It's the safest, most secure method of ammunition sales on the market, and it completely maintains the integrity of the Second Amendment. We don't store the consumer's data, we don't take their ID or their facial, it’s not stored on any cloud,” he told the broadcaster.

In some cases his machines are even stricter than federal law. The US requires buyers of rifle and shotgun ammunition to be 18 or older, but all of his machines require buyers to be at least 21 to purchase any type of ammunition.

“I’m very thankful for those who are taking the time to get to know us and not just making assumptions about what we’re about," Magers told the AP.

Despite his safety arguments, critics have voiced concerns about ammunition being available at grocery stores.

“Innovations that make ammunition sales more secure via facial recognition, age verification, and the tracking of serial sales are promising safety measures that belong in gun stores, not in the place where you buy your kids milk," Nick Suplina, a senior vice president for Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement.

An American Rounds ammunition vending machine is installed in a Fresh Value grocery store in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The machine requires customers to provide photo ID to verify their age and facial recognition technology matches their faces to their identification (screengrab/13 News Now)

Everytown describes itself as the "largest gun violence prevention organization in America."

The organization released a report in March showing that several major online ammunition retailers appeared to have failed to verify customer ages when they bought bullets.

Last year, online ammunition retailer Lucky Gunner settled a lawsuit with the family of 17-year-old Sabika Aziz Sheikh, a student killed in a 2018 school shooting in Texas. The lawsuit alleged that Lucky Gunner twice sold ammunition to the 17-year-old shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis without verifying his age, the Nashville Tennesseanreports. The school shooting left 10 people dead on the campus of Santa Fe High School, approximately 35 miles southeast of Houston.

Magers believes his vending machines can offer safer ammunition sales than online retailers. “We are very pro-Second Amendment, but we are for responsible gun ownership, and we hope we’re improving the environment for the community,” he told the AP.

Mager said that he does not see any difference between offering ammunition in a vending machine at a grocery store and offering it at a counter in a big box store.

“People I think got shocked when they thought about the idea of selling ammo at a grocery store," Magers told the AP. "But as we explained, how is that any different than Walmart?”