Alabama's Morning News with JT
Kip Tyner, Tuscaloosa City Councilman, on Ammo vending machines
An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's Extra Help Program, my premium is zero and my out of pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or a married couple who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp paid for by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Welcome back to Alabama's Morning News. My name is John Mounts. I'm filling in for JT today. And as we mentioned on the show briefly yesterday, there is a vending machine and they're popping up everywhere, but there's one there's one down Tuscaloosa. There's one over in Pell City. And they're made by this company called American Rounds. And this vending machine sells ammunition of all things. And I think back to the days when they used to sell cigarettes and vending machines, they ended that. But for some reason, we can sell ammunition out of a vending machine. Well, to hear it away in with me is Tuscaloosa Councilman. Kip Tyner. Kip, welcome to the show. Thank you, John. It's nice to be here. When you first heard about this, did you see the machine yourself or did one of your constituents see it and report it to you? Yes, one of my constituents actually sent me a photo and they had been grocery shopping and said, how is this legal? And you know, they were not happy. And so that's when I started delving into a little more and at last week's Council meeting, I asked the police chief, you know, how this was possible. Is it legal? And so, you know, he responded that yes, it was kind of superseded the municipalities through the state, I think tobacco and firearms division. And so yes, it is legal. So it's legal, but how does it work? Like is there any sort of safeguards around the machine or can some 12 year old go up there and drop? I don't even know how much it is, $5 or whatever and buy a shotgun shell. Yeah, I know. I'm not sure. And by the way, I will say this upfront, the machine has since been removed. So now it's only in Pelt City, however, the manufacturer said that they removed that one because of, they've had low sales, but they said that there would be more coming into this into our city and Tuskas County that there wasn't the end of them, but they had decided on their own to remove that one. And understand that I don't have anything against the Second Amendment or people having guns or buying the ammunition to place in your gun. My concern is we used to have a person behind a counter who would decide if you should be getting a bullet as opposed to a machine. Is it is this is the case that usually when you have a vending machine, it's because you need to be able to buy things in the middle of the night or something like that. Is there this need that people have to buy ammunition from a machine as opposed to across a counter with a person standing on the other side of the counter to say, you know what? You look like you shouldn't be handed ammunition. Well, that was my, my main concern and I'm, and I want to say upfront too, I'm, I'm certainly not opposed to guns. I've got really had a lot of criticism aimed in my way when I reported that the machine had been taken out because people thought that I had, had it removed because I was against guns. I'm not what I'm against is I'm, I'm for responsible gun owners. And my problem was just like you said, how accessible is it? But you do, if you have to go through, you have to have your ID and I think it's a facial recognition too that takes your picture and you have to present your ID. And so there, there are some safeguards I was told from that you don't even have to do that when you're buying ammunition and any other, you know, a regular place itself of the woods and waters and places, you know, I think maybe some other sports, sports shops that you don't even have to show ID for that. And that surprised me if that's true. Well, one of my concerns is the machine is just a machine. It's not a human being. And so it's possible the machine could be scammed. It's also possible the machine could be robbed because how many times have you seen these stories about thugs, you know, they tie a chain around the legs of an ATM machine and drag it off. What prevents somebody from dying a chain around the legs of this thing and dragging it off the middle of the night and you got a whole machine full of ammo? You know, a responsible gun owner to me is going to have their ammunition before, you know, they're going to buy it at a reputable store, they're going to have plenty on hand. They're not, if not something, going to go to the grocery store and buy bread and milk in a round of ammo. It just makes no sense to me. And to me, it would only be somebody that is possibly, you know, I'd use a scenario of someone that's in a fight or in a dispute with somebody and maybe they, you know, run in and, you know, all the other stores are closed and they get the vending machine in diameter for not a good purpose, you know, that's certainly a scenario that, you know, people, you may, I don't say you could disagree with that because it could that easily happen? I, yeah, I can't imagine buying ammunition for myself this way either. So I want to thank you so much for being on the show, Kip, if the owner of the machine shows up and decides he wants to put another one of these somewhere else, does the city council have the ability to say anything about it or this is just the state Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, just the state. And I thought that it was the same way with a, we had fireworks are illegal in the city of Tuscaloosa and there are no fireworks stands in the city. But this year I noticed they were being sold in grocery stores on depot. How can we have illegal fireworks in the city, but we're allowing stores to sell them within the city. It makes a lot of sense to me, Kip Tiner from Tuscaloosa. Thank you so much for joining us this morning on Alabama's Morning News. Thank you. An official message from Medicare, a new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's extra help program, my premium is zero and my out of pocket costs are low. Who should apply single people making less than $23,000 a year or Mary couples who make less than $31,000 a year. If you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out.