Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
AI-enabled ammunition vending machines could facilitate mass shootings and let people circumvent federal bans prohibiting people with certain criminal convictions from buying ammunition, two senators warn.
Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) asking it to “closely examine” facial recognition-enabled ammunition vending machines that have recently been installed in supermarkets in certain states.
“Easy access to ammunition helps to fuel our country’s gun violence epidemic, which now claims more than 44,000 lives annually.”
The machines, distributed by the Texas-based company American Rounds, began appearing in grocery stores in Alabama, Texas,…