You Can Buy WHAT from a Vending Machine in the US?!

In Japan, you can buy almost anything from a vending machine. Recently, here in the US, we’ve made horrible progress on that front.

Worst Vending Machine Idea, Ever

Apparently some gun-nut geniuses decided to incorporate a company, American Rounds ^[1], to put ammunition vending machines in grocery stores. Apparently, it’s really inconvenient to run out of ammo on a mass murder spree while shopping for dinner. And they think their id-scanning, “360 facial recognition” system will be secure.

If you’re brave enough to follow the link in the references, there’s video.

Right now, they’re in grocery stores in Alabama and Oklahoma, with plans to expand to Louisiana, Texas, and “all across the South and the Southeast”. Because… of course they are, in the deep red states.

This is, of course, all the more reason not to visit the red states or direct any business their way.

The Weekend Conclusion

Look, here at Chez Weekend we’re a lefty bunch. Even the cats (though they’re not eligible to vote).

We think lack of stringent, national gun control is a scandal before earth and heaven:

• Guns should be (just barely) available for hunting, target shooting and a few sports. And nothing else for civilian use.
• Even then, those guns should be required to be kept at a shooting club (locked up, unloaded, stored separately from ammunition), not in somebody’s home.
• Ballistics identifying each gun (where possible) should be registered with the FBI, so that if it’s used in any crime the owner can be made legally complicit (unless they reported a theft).
• Ammunition should be, if anything, even more restricted and taxed. Maybe a high deposit on the brass, like soda cans but a couple bucks a shot reimbursed when you turn in the empty cartridges?

Impulse purchases of bullets? This is just insane. Enough to be a public health hazard. I’m really surprised the insurance companies of the grocery stores don’t shut it down.

Now, more than ever: Ceterum censeo, Trump incarcerandam esse.

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Notes & References

1: American Rounds, Inc., “Ammo Sales Like You’ve Never Seen Before”, downloaded 2024-Jul-08. ↩