You can't even buy ammo from a vending machine in GTA. You still need to go to a gun store for that in the game. You can tell Rockstar have been slacking when real life gets ahead of their satirical game.
In Cyberpunk 2077, you can buy a gun from some vending machines. It is made out of plastic and cannot be reloaded, but it's a real gun. In this case, I'd say reality outdid the sarcasm.
Honestly just start a rumor that they are put in place by the FBI to get biometrics of local gun users.....they will be out of business or vandalized by next week.
Honestly, the only people using these will be the rich wannabe-redneck republicans who like to post their gun collections on instagram. It's an opportunity to virtue signal your gun fetish and nothing else.
Vending machines are great for when you need a small amount of something on the spur of the moment--but kinda worthless for something like bullets (presumably, if you're planning ahead to have a gun on you, you would also have thought to stuff a few rounds in your pocket at least) When they start selling actual guns, then I'll be worried.
I thought that it was weird too but they are probably using some kind of machine learning to look at the buying to try and classify age and if the image on the ID matches.
But Alabama, specifically, was very against the use of ai and facial recognition and passed a bill to limit it's use. Now they are willing to use it to have a record of exactly when and where they buy ammunition and exactly which caliber?
Cognitive disconnect when it's about convenience, huh
Just a guess, but maybe they use AI to compare the live person's face to the photo on the ID to verify. Of course if they're comparing to the printed photo and not to a database photo linked to the ID, then the whole purpose of the machine is ill-conceived, as it could be bypassed with a fake ID.
As someone often paid to think like a criminal ( in order to stop criminals ), these look like a prime opportunity for a violent cartel to both stock up on ammo and launder money.
Come to think of it, that may be a meta-joke I missed in Borderlands.
The photo recognition ought to put a bit of a damper on it, but I feel like a motivated "investor" could find work-arounds (or just unwitting "mules").
I mean, it looks to be in a grocery store near the front door. I'm not sure how much expensive, highly portable ammo needs to be in there to make a B&E viable, but I bet it can hold at least that much.
The point of vending machines is convenience of getting something cold on the go (or snacks, but a shelf works for those too)...this solved a problem no one had to make a statement no one cares about....GJ?
I'm seriously trying to find a use case for these things. If you're prepping for the apocalypse or stockpiling, you'll buy ammo in bulk from a store. If you're going hunting, you probably have a stock of ammo, and if not you'll probably buy a few boxes from the store. And it's not like Walmart closes, so you can even get it at 2am. What niche are these supposed to serve?
Lots of rural Walmarts close at night now, for a variety of reasons, such as to cut costs, reduce shoplifting. Ours recently got rid of their plastic handbaskets because too many were being stolen. Not all flyover country has the same set of troubles. This is one small dataset I'm offering, I realize, but we're not that different from people in urban areas.
Well, an ability to buy stuff for a gun does not exclude the possibility to have an affordable healthcare. US does not have affordable one, but I live in a country with "free" healthcare and it is so shitty that I and my family need to go to private doctors anyway 90% of cases. We need to pay twice: one for the "free" healthcare in taxes and the second time at the private doctor. Admitedly, less fucked up than in US, but this still fucking sucks.
THIS. Sometimes, a silly vending machine in Alabama is just a vending machine in Alabama, not the summation of what you think is wrong with other peoples' politics.
Not all tap water is good to drink. Some people wells or some city water is bad.
Personally I only buy it if the power is out (to help pack the fridge and freezer) or road trips / camping. Where yes is could try to store a coolers worth of ice in my freezer but its just not worth it
Brothers and sisters, if you and I would just realize, that once we learn to talk the language that they understand, they will then get the point. You can't ever reach a man if you don't speak his language. If a man speaks the language of brute force, you can't come to him with peace. Why goodnight! He'll break you in two, as he has been doing all along. If a man speaks French, you can't speak to him in German. If he speaks Swahili, you can't communicate with him in Chinese. You have to find out, what does this man speak? Once you know his language, learn how to speak his language. He'll get the point, there will be some dialogue, some communication, and some understanding will be developed... Learn the language that they understand, and then when they come up on our door step to talk, we can talk.