A Texas-based company has started manufacturing automatic gun ammunition dispensers, claiming it’s the safest way to sell them.
American Rounds has already installed six of the machines in supermarkets in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma. Two more are expected to be installed by the end of the month in Texas and Colorado, said Grant Magers, American Rounds’ chief executive.
“Our ammunition is not available off the shelf and we are the only company that absolutely requires ID verification,” Magers said. He also noted that most customers only buy one or two boxes of ammunition.
Gun control advocates have said ammunition should not be so easily accessible and that the problems vending machine makers claim to combat — including ammunition theft from stores and ammunition purchases by minors — would be better addressed by stricter regulations.
To use the vending machines, customers follow a touchscreen and select from a menu whether they want handgun, rifle or shotgun ammunition, then choose the specific type of ammunition they want. Once the shopper selects what they want, they place their ID card in a scanner, and a camera in the machine takes photos of their face to validate their identity and show they are at least 21 years old. Magers said customer data is not stored, shared or sold. Ammunition can only be purchased with a card; the kiosk does not accept cash.
Mr. Magers said it was the safest way to sell ammunition. “We are pro-Second Amendment, but we are also very pro- and supportive of responsible gun owners,” Mr. Magers said.
Firearm ammunition can be purchased in stores and online. Under federal law, individuals must be at least 18 years old to purchase shotgun and rifle ammunition. To purchase ammunition for other types of firearms, individuals must be at least 21 years old. Some states and local governments have stricter requirements, such as requiring a license to purchase ammunition. American Rounds Machines requires buyers to be at least 21 years old for all types of ammunition purchases.
There are problems with ammunition thefts from stores and people buying it online using fake or stolen IDs. The Delaware attorney general is investigating Cabela’s, the outdoor recreation chain, because investigators believe 500,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen in less than a year from a store in Christiana. A 17-year-old who killed 10 students and teachers at Santa Fe High School in Texas in 2018 bought ammunition online.
Mr. Magers said people who want to buy ammunition with malicious intent are more likely to buy ammunition at a location where they can pay in cash, without having their identity verified, or to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition without inspection.
“Are they more likely to do that,” Magers said, “or are they more likely to come to one of our stores where it’s under surveillance?”
The first American Rounds machine was installed in a Fresh Value grocery store in Pell City, Ala., in November 2023, Magers said. He added that the company has since heard from a barber shop, a cowboy boot store and a hardware store that are interested in purchasing a machine.
According to Tuscaloosa Thread, a local news site, a machine was removed from a grocery store in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, earlier this month after questions about it were raised at a city council meeting. The store told the news site that the machine was removed due to low sales.
Dan Semenza, director of interpersonal violence research at the New Jersey Center for Gun Violence Research, said something is lost when ammunition is sold by a machine, rather than by a person who might notice when a buyer is in crisis. He also said claims about vending machine technology should be evaluated by a third party.
When Dr. Semenza first heard about the machines, he wondered “why?” because they didn’t seem to solve existing problems with ammunition sales. He said the machines, combined with other recent efforts to roll back gun regulations, appeared to be part of a movement to change standards.
“This step backwards symbolizes in some way a normalization or a relaxation towards weapons and ammunition in daily life,” Dr. Semenza said.
Joshua Horwitz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, also said there are too many unknowns about how the machines could affect public safety to install them in stores without input from stakeholders, including lawmakers, law enforcement and Second Amendment advocates.
Nick Suplina, senior vice president for legal and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for stricter gun control, said that if age-verification technology in vending machines worked well and the machines were impervious to theft, it could be useful in addressing problems such as minors buying ammunition online and stealing from stores. But even if those facts were proven, he added, the machines would have no place in grocery stores.
“It doesn’t address the fundamental problem, even though it claims to solve some of the problems,” Mr. Suplina said.
Everytown wants ammunition to be sold only by licensed dealers and requires buyers to undergo background checks. Some people aren’t allowed to possess ammunition, such as those with felony convictions or under a domestic restraining order, but sellers, whether in person, online or through vending machines, aren’t required to check those things under federal law. Some states, including California and New York, have stricter laws.
American Rounds said on its website that vending machines make buying ammunition more convenient, but Suplina said convenience is not a barrier to people buying ammunition. An Everytown report found there were nearly 78,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States as of 2022, twice the number of post offices.
“In Paris, for a few euros, you can buy a freshly baked baguette from a vending machine, and in Tokyo, it’s ramen,” Mr. Suplina says. “In the America of the arms industry, it’s ammunition.”