A couple of Alabama stores from the Fresh Value supermarket chain — one in Tuscaloosa and the other in Pell City — installed vending machines that dispense ammunition.
But the machines won’t sell ammo to just anyone.
A customer has to insert his identification card, and the contraption uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition software to compare the photo on the ID to the buyer’s face.
Fresh Value approached American Rounds, which supplies the machines and manufacturers the ammo.
A store representative said in a promotional video that "we’re always looking for ways to give our customers another reason to come visit our stores."
"Sweet Home, Alabama!" One-stop shopping — that must be their goal.
American Rounds CEO Grant Magers added that his company is slated to install more ammo vending machines in other Alabama locations, as well as in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.
He hopes to also expand to other areas in the south and southeast United States.
Ammo vending machines have to be just about the most American thing ever — not just due to the high tech that goes into them, but especially because of the product they dispense — live ammunition.
Nineteenth century writer, orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass once observed what was required to protect and maintain liberty in a free society:
"A man's rights rest in three boxes," he said. "The ballot box, jury box and the cartridge box."
Lately the ballot box has proven to be unreliable, and Democratic lawmakers want to keep it that way.
This week the House is scheduled to vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections.
Although this should be an all-American "Duh!" no-brainer, Axios.com reported Saturday that House Democrats are pulling out all the stops to oppose the bill.
The jury box has also proven to be unreliable lately, ever since a Manhattan jury found former President Trump guilty of 34 made-up felony counts in late May.
That leaves only the cartridge box.
And because ammo vending machines are a distinctly American innovation, the very idea of them would go "whoosh" — right over the heads of folks from other countries.
A few years back England’s Prince Harry said he thought the First Amendment right to speak freely without government control was one of the craziest things he’d ever heard of.
"I've got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers," he said during a 2021 podcast interview.
If he thinks that First Amendment freedom of speech is "bonkers," wait until he hears about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms — not to mention vending machines that pop out live ammunition.
‘Murica!
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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