Matthew Hoover has been released from a federal prison in Wisconsin after serving nearly three years of a five-year sentence for trafficking machine guns. He is now headed to a halfway house to serve out the remainder of his conviction.
Mr. Hoover ran the popular YouTube channel CRS Firearms. The channel concentrated on guns and gun rights. During the run of his channel, he was approached by Kristopher Justin Ervin about advertising the AutoKeyCard. The AutoKeyCard was a metal card with a slight etching of a lightning link. The etching was not to scale. According to Ervin, the purpose of the card was to inspire conversations about the ineffectiveness of gun laws. Mr. Hoover agreed to take on the sponsor.
Mr. Hoover began advertising the card on his YouTube channel. At no time did he sell, manufacture, or own the company that produced the cards. While advertising the cards, a bank employee at the bank the company used would Google the AutoKeyCard. This employee would then contact the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), believing the product to be illegal.
When the ATF got word of the card’s existence, they would arrest Irvin and charge him with multiple charges, including trafficking machine guns. Mr. Hoover would raise money for Ervin’s legal defense. This fundraising caught the attention of the ATF. The ATF believed that Hoover was raising money for Ervin to help him win the case, so they could keep making money. According to the ATF, this meant the two men were involved in a criminal conspiracy.
The ATF would arrest Hoover and charge him with conspiracy and trafficking machine guns in violation of the National Firearms Act (NFA) and the Hughes Amendment of the Gun Owners Protection Act (GOPA). This arrest sent shivers down the backs of anyone who took sponsorships, because a company’s actions could be used against content creators.
During the trial, the ATF admitted that they could not get the card to work as a lightning link by cutting along the lines. ATF Firearms Examiner Cody Toy admitted he had to cut outside the lines to get automatic fire. Even this was not entirely correct. The ATF did not get sustained fire. FE Toy only caused hammer follow, but to the ATF, that was enough to determine that the card functioned as a machine gun conversion device (MCD). The government couldn’t find a single person who had the card to work as an MCD, but it claimed that it didn’t matter because the men intended the card to work as an MCD.
The defendants were prevented from arguing that the Second Amendment protected them. The jury instructions were also problematic; they were basically told that the card should be considered a machine gun, which hurt the defense’s case. The jury returned a guilty verdict after a few hours of deliberation. Mr. Hoover was immediately taken into custody, ripping the father away from his wife and children.
During the sentencing, the pre-sentencing report (PSR) was favorable to Hoover, citing that he had a clean criminal record and was the sole breadwinner for his family. The government attorney, Laura Coffer Taylor, objected to the PSR demanding the maximum sentence for Hoover. She claimed that the marriage was a sham to prevent Hoover’s wife from testifying against him, even though they had multiple children together. When AmmoLand News reported on the PSR, Taylor filed for a gag order to try to prevent our reporting. Thanks to a legal team supplied by Gun Owners of America (GOA), the government was forced to withdraw its motion.
Mr. Hoover and Mr. Ervin would appeal their convictions to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. That appeal has been heard, but the Circuit Court has not issued a decision in the case. Mr. Hoover might be out of prison, but he has still lost his constitutionally protected rights. Whether he gets his rights back is in the hands of the Circuit Court.
Autokeycard.com Seized By ATF, Owner Arrested For Selling A Drawing
About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Proof that if they want you, they will get you. Mark and Patricia McCloskey. The gun didn’t fire until they messed with it to make it fire. Patrick Tate Adamiak, same story and that it could be easily converted to work again. The key is it didn’t work. It’s supposed to be We the People running our government, not the government running us. Judges saying what can and cannot be used in arguments should be illegal because there cannot be a true assessment of anything by anyone without ALL the facts for the jurors. Even though you are not required… Read more »
Yet another example of ATF “ExPeRtS” showing their stupidity & ignorance.
This case is almost as chilling as the Airport manger that the ATF straight up murdered. In the UK it’s even worse. Why is the government that is sworn to protect us acting like our worst enemy? Disappointed in our elected officials because they allow this to happen.
another reason atf agents should be jailed without trial and hung asap
The jury should have voted “Not Guilty” under “jury nullification” (yes, the defendant broke the “law”, but it was an unjust and illegal law to begin with)
I hope that the government attorney, Laura Coffer Taylor, has been fired by the new ATF leadership!
Does anyone know if she is no longer employed by the ATF?
>”That appeal has been heard, but the Circuit Court has not issued a decision in the case”<
Speedy trial. No trial in 30 days, then throw the case out. Trials should be almost as fast as a bullet.
HLB
The ATF is a joke. Anytime they get a device they claim makes a semi automatic firearm a fully automatic firearm, they use everything from clothes pins to duct tape and zip ties to make the devices appear to make a firearm fully automatic. The firearm still operates as a semi auto, one bullet per action of the trigger. They can never prove it with just the device being used as intended. These ATF Firearms Examiners must be the kids who grew up cheating at everything and they’ve carried that practice into their jobs.
Your kid’s ill. Doc gives you capsules and tells you “They’re antibiotics”. Kid gets sicker and dies. “Antibiotics” turn out to be sugar pills. They looked like antibiotics. You were told they were antibiotics. They were incapable of doing what antibiotics do. Were they really antibiotics? No! MCD? Not a chance. Fraud? Possibly… Had I been on the jury, as soon as we got into the jury room for deliberations I’d’ve said: “It’s not a MCD. Even if you cut along the lines and assemble the pieces it will not function to induce automatic fire. Intent only colors the severity… Read more »
I have to wonder what a jury might do if the Judge was found in possession of multiple shoelaces, interacted with other individuals who were also using or even selling these MCD’s and the Jury was told they were to consider them MCD’s. Everything described above screams for the need for an investigation.
WHY is this not being done?