It’s no secret that Americans love guns. Not only do nearly half of Americans report living in a household with guns, but the United States leads every other country in the world in gun density (the second-most gun-dense country is Yemen, and it’s not even close). The United States is actually the only country with more guns than people. Given all of this, it’s no surprise that in some states, you can now walk into a grocery store and buy bullets from a vending machine like you’re ordering a candy bar or soda.
Well, sort of. Not quite. The vending machine company behind this new trend, American Rounds, says it uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to verify that buyers are of legal age to buy rounds. So it’s a slightly more rigorous process than buying a Twix.
There are surprisingly few regulations regarding the purchase of ammunition in the United States, but some of the few that do exist are based on age. Federal law states that you must be at least 18 years old to purchase ammunition for long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, and if you want to buy bullets for handguns, you must be at least 21 years old. As such, American Rounds has created an identity verification mechanism for its bullet distributors that can supposedly verify the age of the person purchasing the ammunition.
“Our smart ammunition vending machines feature built-in artificial intelligence technology, card scanning capability, and facial recognition software,” the company’s website states. “Each software works together to verify that the person using the machine matches the ID being scanned.”
Cleveland.com initially reported on the proliferation of American Rounds machines, writing that they were currently available at six stores in Oklahoma and Alabama. On Friday, a local Alabama news outlet reported that a Tuscaloosa store removed one of the machines after “the legality of the machine was called into question” at a city council meeting. The city’s law department admitted that the machines were legal if they met the proper zoning requirements. The store said it “removed the machine on July 3 due to a lack of sales,” the outlet reported.
Gizmodo has reached out to American Rounds for more information about its business and will update this article if it responds.
