Ammunition vending machines are spreading across the United States

American Rounds, the company behind the controversial ammunition vending machines that recently began popping up in businesses in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, has announced plans to expand into Western states, including California.

In fact, expansion is already underway. This week, Colorado’s first ammunition vending machine will be installed at a grocery store southwest of Denver, LaGree’s Food Store in Buena Vista, Los Angeles television station KABC reported.

The Dallas-based company has not yet offered details about further expansion into the Golden State, including the exact location of the machines and the launch date, but American Rounds said it is on the way. During an interview with NBC affiliate KKCO-TV last month, CEO Grant Magers said the company has more than 200 requests for stores across nine states, many of which are from retail outlets in Florida.

Newsweek Magazine I reached out to American Rounds for comment via email on Friday morning, after business hours.

The first automatic ammunition vending machine, or AARM unit as they are formally known, was installed in a grocery store in Alabama in November 2023. According to Magers, it was local grocery store owners who approached him in the spring of that same year about using the vending machines to sell ammunition.

The company has continued to install ammunition vending machines at several stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas. Magers told Indiana-based news website IndyStar that the company also has plans to expand in the state.

“We have received several requests to install our machines in Indiana and Kentucky. We have plans for future growth across the country and would be honored to become part of the Indiana and Kentucky communities,” Magers said.

American Rounds’ high-tech vending machine uses artificial intelligence technology, card scanning and facial recognition to verify the purchaser’s age and enable the sale of 9mm ammunition and 12-gauge shotgun shells to customers in Southern states who might have walked away from buying bread and butter at their local grocery store.

Under federal law, a person must be 18 to buy shotgun and rifle ammunition and 21 to buy handgun ammunition. In an interview with KKCO-TV last month, Magers said “the whole experience takes a minute and a half once you get familiar with the machine.”

While American Rounds maintains that its ammunition vending machines are safer than buying rounds off the shelf, where thieves can simply pocket them, gun violence advocates have raised concerns about the new technology.

“Innovations that make ammunition sales safer through facial recognition, age verification and serial sales tracking are promising safety measures that belong in gun stores, not where you buy your kids’ milk,” Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, told The Associated Press.

“In a country awash in guns and ammunition, where weapons are the leading cause of death among children, we do not need to further normalise the sale and promotion of these products.”

According to the Giffords Law Center, a national public interest law center and nonprofit that works in all 50 states to change policy and end gun violence, American Rounds machines are not equipped to address situations where local laws go beyond federal regulations, IndyStar reported.

Last month, an American Rounds ammunition vending machine in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was dismantled and relocated by the company after concerns were raised about the legality of the technology.

In a statement to CNN, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said that ammunition vending machines are technically legal, though they must abide by both state and federal laws: “A federal license is not required to sell ammunition. However, commercial sales of ammunition must comply with state laws as well as applicable federal laws.”