It’s not your father’s vending machine.
A company called America Rounds has developed an automated dispenser for ammunition and has placed its first one in Texas at a Lowe’s Market in Canyon Lake, according to KENS-TV.
Locations in Alabama and Oklahoma also have the machines, according to the company’s website.
Getting ammo takes a little more than putting in a coin and pulling a lever, according to KENS.
A buyer has to submit a driver’s license. Artificial intelligence then scans the face of the buyer to be sure it matches.
“We kind of looked at the market and said how can we use this technology to create a better environment but still maintain the integrity of the second amendment,” American Rounds CEO Grant Magers said.
Demand is rising, he said.
“Over 200 are waiting,” Magers said.
“One of the ways we’re changing the landscape of ammunition sales is by making it more available,” Magers says in a video posted on the company’s website.
Would you purchase ammunition from one of these machines?
“Being able to move it to places like your grocery store or supermarket makes it much more available to the public.”
The machines stock handgun, rifle and shotgun ammunition.
The company says all sales comply with federal and local rules, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Magers said the machines are a secure environment in which to do business, according to Fox Business
.”These environments lead to inadvertent sales to underaged purchasers, and … in the case of retail stores, a high theft rate,” Magers said.
“What we loved about this concept is the AARM units use state-of-the-art ID scanners combined with facial recognition before a transaction can be made,” he said. AARM is an acronym for Automated Ammunition Retail Machine.
“We only place them inside stores and not outside,” he said.
He the machine “maintains the integrity of the Second Amendment and reduces the opportunity for error in retail sales environments.”
Magers also noted that they are a boon to rural areas, according to KXAS-TV.
“Someone in that community might have to drive an hour or an hour and a half to get supplied if they want to go hunting, for instance,” Margers said. “Our grocery stores, they wanted to be able to offer their customer another category that they felt like would be popular.”
