Ammo Vending Machine Coming to Buena Vista Grocery Store

A vending machine that sells firearm ammunition is coming to Buena Vista next week. American Rounds, a Texas-based company that makes and sells the machine, promises that the process will be safer than buying ammo from retail stores or online, but critics say that bullets shouldn't be sold where people buy milk and eggs with their families.

"Traditionally, ammunition is sold at outdoor-type stores, your sporting goods stores, and it just sits on a shelf, it's very accessible. Because of that, there's a high rate of theft," American Rounds CEO Grant Magers says in a video promoting the product. "We have a very secure automated retail machine."

Limited to customers 21 and up, the machine requires an ID before it can be used; it takes a 360-degree scan of the customer's face to determine that it matches up with the ID, according to American Rounds.

"The machines really provide an opportunity for safe, affordable and available ammunition sales," Magers says. "The whole experience takes a minute and a half once you're familiar with the machine."

Tom Mauser, one of the boardmembers of Colorado Ceasefire, a gun violence prevention group, and the father of Columbine victim Daniel Mauser, says that he and Colorado Ceasefire don't want to be "overly reactive to something in small numbers," as American Rounds has only recently started installing the machines.

"On the other hand, we do have general concerns, especially when it comes to potential suicide," he adds. "Suicide is a very impulsive act, and you don't want to make it super easy for somebody. When you have somebody going to a gun shop, they're encountering somebody."

Mauser explains that "a good gun shop employee can recognize somebody who is in crisis" and see warning signs like someone acting nervous. "You don't get that with a machine," he says.

Beyond that, selling ammo through a machine is "another step towards normalizing firearms in America," he says.

"What is the need for this?" he asks. "We have at least 1,600 gun shops in the state. That's more than we have McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell — far more gun shops than there are any of those common outlets."

Federal law does not require a license to sell small-arms ammunition, and requires that customers be over the age of eighteen in order to buy ammo for shotguns and rifles. Ammo for handguns requires that customers be 21 or older, and Colorado law prohibits the sale of high-capacity magazines used for assault rifles.

According to the most recent data from Colorado's firearm data dashboard, more than 443,000 guns were sold in Colorado in 2021; that year, more than 700 people died from firearm deaths. Between 2006 and 2021, more than 2,300 people were killed with guns in Colorado.

The ammo vending machine in Buena Vista will be located in its Lagree's Food Store. The business has yet to respond to a request for comment.

American Rounds debuted its ammo vending machines in November in Alabama. It now has two machines in Alabama,  three in Oklahoma and one in Texas; Mager says others are coming to Louisiana, among other states.