Lowe’s Market, a local grocery store in Canyon Lake, Texas, has become the first location in the state to offer their customers the unique experience of buying ammunition from a vending machine. Seated next to the store’s ATM, the vending machine employs TSA facial recognition technology to confirm the buyer’s identity, ensuring they are at least 21 years of age to complete the purchase.
American Rounds has already partnered with grocery stores in Alabama and Oklahoma and is now bringing the experience to Texas. The vending machines carry the most common types of ammo including 9mm, .45 ACP, .357 Magnum and .223/5.56. American Rounds also explained that there are seasonal offerings too. These can also be tailored, for instance, during hunting season or leading up to it, popular white tail and other hunting rounds can be cycled into the machines.
Grant Mager, CEO of the company, believes the 21 and older age requirement makes the vending machines the safest way to purchase ammunition, and that the relatively low capacity of the machines makes them unattractive to violent criminals who might prefer to buy in larger quantities online. “There’s a limited supply inside that machine. It’s not like there’s a lot of ammo, right? We have to restock it regularly,” Mager said.
Below is a video from American Rounds explaining their vending machine concept:
Look the part!
Mager warns, however, that you must look like your ID photo or risk having the machine reject your purchase. Beards, in particular, pose a challenge according to the CEO, “I know beards are a big trend right now. Someone has one of those beards and it’s not on their ID, it’s very likely that they’re going to get rejected.”
Privacy
With your ID and face being scanned in order to make a purchase, it is natural to wonder what happens to that information. Speaking with Grant Mager myself, he informs me that American Rounds vending machines do not store scan data at all and that facial recognition scans are discarded immediately after confirmation that an individual matches their ID.
This level of liberty cannot exist in the day and age without criticism, with organizations like Texas Gun Sense claiming that the vending machines will contribute to worsening gun violence in the state. Of course, they question whether any measure to make firearms and ammunition more accessible is a step in the right direction.
Thoughts
I have lived in highly regulated parts of America as well as areas with minimal regulation of firearms and ammunition ownership, transfer, and carry. In my personal experience, the highly regulated areas were some of the most crime-ridden and violent places I could not wait to exit. In contrast, the places I have lived with minimal regulation have been some of the most peaceful and law-abiding in my experience. Find out more at www.americanrounds.com.
Tell us in the comments below what you think of ammunition vending machines and greater access to Second Amendment liberties in general.
