Age verification to buy alcohol, but not rifle ammo? How kids can get access in a few clicks

For $30 and a few clicks, any child can have a box of 20 rounds of .223 rifle ammunition delivered to their doorstep within days.

That’s what Everytown for Gun Safety found when it sent people undercover recently to test federal laws prohibiting ammo sales to minors by ordering rifle rounds from seven top e-commerce retailers.

Age verification amounted to checkboxes and requirements buried in the sites’ terms of service. None required purchasers to upload an identification or have an adult sign for delivery.

Everytown surveyed well-known sites such as Brownells and Guns.com as well as bulk ammo warehouses with more opaque ownership, such as Florida-based BHAmmo.com.

“This shows how the gun industry will maximize profits over safety,” Justin Wagner, Everytown’s senior director of investigations, said this week. “Other industries like alcohol delivery and online gambling have found ways to do robust age verification, but the gun industry can’t be bothered.”

Under federal law, you have to be 18 to buy rifle and shotgun ammunition and 21 for handgun ammo. But the law doesn’t prescribe how sellers must verify age; it holds them in violation of the statute only if they “know or have reasonable cause to believe the purchaser of the ammunition is a juvenile.” Underage buyers would not technically be breaking the law until they receive the ammo.

A handful of states do more. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., require a permit, ID card or safety certificate for some ammo purchases. In California, New York and the District of Columbia, you can legally buy ammunition only in person at licensed dealers with an ID.

Everytown says those simple requirements can save lives.

They noted that some top retailers, including Cabela’s and Brownells, already have a system set up to require identification to purchase ammunition at their stores ? but have no such requirement online.

Underage purchasers lying on age affirmations is no different from using fake IDs at liquor stores, said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs at the Gun Owners of America.

“The federal government made these age standards, the stores are obligated to follow the law, but I don’t think there’s additional responsibility to go above and beyond that,” Johnston said. “No law is going to prevent a determined criminal from committing a criminal act.”

But the issue is particularly painful for survivors of gun violence tied to underage shooters. Everytown points to the Santa Fe High School shooter in Texas who killed 10 classmates and teachers and injured 13 in 2018.

Two weeks after the Parkland shooting in Florida, the 17-year-old Texan logged on to LuckyGunner.com and used his own name and a prepaid gift card to buy dozens of shotgun shells and .38 special hollow-point ammunition. It was swiftly delivered to his home via FedEx.

Families of the Santa Fe shooting victims sued Lucky Gunner in a case that was ultimately denied an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court and was settled last year in private.

Lucky Gunner representatives said in a post after the settlement that they had changed their age verification system in 2019 to ensure purchasers were of age. Today the site still does not require photo identification, and the company did not respond to questions from USA TODAY about how it verifies age.

An attorney for Lucky Gunner wrote in a 2020 filing in the Texas suit that “Creating a duty to verify (age) or inquire from whole cloth would fundamentally alter federal policy, but also force change in business practices across the nation as the vast majority of states do not recognize such a preexisting duty.”

More recently in 2021, a 17-year-old in Michigan logged on to the online retailer Outdoor Limited to buy ammunition for the unserialized gun kit he purchased online. He then mistakenly shot his best friend in the face, causing him to lose his eye and suffer chronic seizures.

Everytown did not survey Lucky Gunner because the organization backed the extensive litigation over the issue. It did include Outdoor Limited.

Cheap online ammunition sellers

Everytown selected a swath of well-known online retailers for its inquiry into ammunition sales. It hired a purchaser who was over 21 and lives in a state without additional ammunition regulations. He clicked through boxes attesting to his age but never uploaded identification. Everytown representatives said they plan to turn over the ammunition to local police.

Here’s what they found when purchasing the same box of .223 Remington ammunition typically used in an AR-15-style rifle:

• BH Ammo: Required buyers to check a box to affirm they were 21 and legally allowed to own the ammo. No proof of age required. The ammunition was delivered eight days later.

• Brownells: Required buyers to view a pop-up with information about the law. No proof of age required. Delivered three days later.

• Firearms Depot: Did not ask questions about customers' age. Delivered a week later.

• Global Ordnance: Required buyers to click a box agreeing to terms and conditions that said they would need to provide an adult signature upon delivery. Delivered six days later with no identification required at delivery.

• Guns.com: Asked buyers if they were 18 to enter the site, then to click a box to purchase. Delivered the day after purchase.

• Outdoor Limited: Asked if purchasers were 18 or 21; no requirement to prove age. Delivered 11 days later.

• Palmetto State Armory: Asked if customers were 18 to enter the site, no requirement. Delivered six days after purchase.

None of the seven online retailers responded to repeated requests for comment from USA TODAY.

“These checkboxes don’t fly in other prohibited items and they shouldn’t fly here,” Everytown’s Wagner said. “Why would they fight this? We can fight over what guns people can and can’t have, but young people obtaining ammunition so easily is troubling.”

Gun industry says online sales are on purchaser

Age verification for ammunition sales have been debated in online forums in the wake of the Lucky Gunner lawsuit and of sites adding indemnification language to age questionnaires at checkout.

Some users on popular sites like AR15.com and Reddit say buyers should just follow the law and use their ID to prove their age. Others are fearful of government registries and erosion of Second Amendment rights.

That’s the biggest issue for Johnston and Gun Owners of America.

“This is a constitutional right to purchase and own ammunition, and you don’t need the government’s permission to exercise that right,” Johnston said. “The other issue is privacy. Gun owners are private and don’t want a list of people who have exercised their rights.”

Johnston said focusing on ammunition is faulty because firearms are more heavily regulated and they are required to fire the ammunition.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents many of the largest online retailers, declined to answer questions about the age verification study. The National Rifle Association also declined to weigh in.

How does Uber, DraftKings and Pornhub verify your age?

No federal law restricts online access to gambling or pornography, but many states have set limits at 18 or 21. Since 1984, the nationwide minimum legal drinking age has been 21.

All three offer checks and balances stronger than those for ammunition identified by Everytown.

With the click of a button on your cellphone, a driver will shuttle you a six-pack of beer or bottle of wine, but not without strict age verification software. That’s according to UberEats, which recently purchased Drizly, the nation’s largest online marketplace for alcohol, which had its own ID verification system.

Uber now requires a valid ID and has drivers scan the back barcode or, if presented with a passport, use a third-party verification system operated through the firm Au10tix.

At DraftKings, the daily fantasy sports and betting platform, the stakes are high as states open the door to online gambling and its $10-billion-a-year industry.

The site has rules similar to Know Your Customer compliance at banks. Users tether their identification with physical address, date of birth, Social Security number, bank statements – information that is reviewed. If hiccups are found, users must go through a second round of vetting with a photo ID.

Texas recently joined six other states in requiring a photo ID to enter pornography sites. In response, last week the site Pornhub blocked all access in the state, setting off a debate over free speech.

The Texas law passed in 2023 requires companies that offer “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify their age with a government-issued identification or another system that uses public and private data.

Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact him at [email protected] or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Online ammo sales without age checks give kids dangerously easy access