A Dallas-based startup has rolled out a plan to put retail ammunition vending machines in grocery stores, but some are worried it could lead to impulse bullet buying, especially for those wanting to do harm to others or themselves.
American Rounds opened its first automated retail ammunition machine at a Fresh Value grocery store in Pell City, Alabama, late in 2023, The Washington Post reported Sunday, selling various brands of rifle, shotgun, and handgun ammunition. The company also has vending machines in Oklahoma, according to its website, and Texas, and it reportedly is seeking to expand its business into Colorado.
The company advertises its machines as a safer, more convenient way to buy ammunition than at a large retail store or online.
"If you're in the ammunition space … you have a social responsibility to make things as safe as possible while maintaining the integrity of the Second Amendment," American Rounds CEO Grant Magers told the Post. "We wanted to accomplish both."
Magers said American Rounds has signed more than 200 contracts and received requests for machines in nearly every state, according to the Post. Magers said contract negotiations and production limits have curtailed wider distribution so far, but the company's goal is to ship about 100 units in 2025.
The machines use a touch screen — there is no transparent glass panel to view the ammunition, such as with candy and soft drink vending machines, the Post reported.
"These are double-walled steel, 2,000-pound machines that are always indoors under security cameras," Magers said. "[Ammunition is] not sitting on a shelf, you know, like your bread aisle in the grocery store."
Customers must be at least 21 years old to purchase ammunition through an American Rounds machine, regardless of state laws. First, a customer is asked to scan their driver's licenses to confirm their age, and then the machine's facial recognition software scans their face to match their identity to the license. Customers have the option to buy three types of ammunition: rifle, handgun, and shotgun rounds.
"We're the only company in America that say can say 100% percent, every purchase, that there's an ID verified," Magers said.
American Rounds partnered with a pro-Second Amendment mental health nonprofit Walk the Talk America to reach kiosk customers in crisis, the Post reported. The company displays advertisements for mental health screenings on its machines, which also show customers the national suicide hotline phone number, 988, before every use.
Dr. Paul Nestadt, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, compared the machine's warnings to signs on bridges that read, "Don't jump. Seek help."
"We've studied those. They're not effective," Nestadt told the Post. "If someone is impulsively going to attempt suicide, that sign doesn't seem to stop them. By making [ammunition] more accessible, there's less time for that impulse to pass, for the heat to die down."
Magers compared his company's approach to safety to that of a car manufacturer.
"People still have car accidents and have tragedy, but they take steps to make it safer," Magers said. "They don't just say, 'OK, we're not going to use cars anymore.'"
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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