YouTuber Matthew Hoover gets 5 years in prison for promoting device that turned rifles into machine guns
WISCONSIN: YouTuber Matthew Raymond Hoover has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for promoting a device known as an 'auto key card' that can convert semi-automatic rifles into illegal machine guns.
Hoover, who has over 180,000 subscribers on his CRS Firearms YouTube channel, discussed the device in his videos, leading to a "substantial increase" in its sales.
Who is Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin?
His accomplice, Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin, who manufactured these devices, was also sentenced to five years and eight months and ordered to forfeit the $68,000 he earned from sales.
Both were found guilty by a jury in April.
The federal jury found Ervin and Hoover guilty of conspiring to transfer unregistered machinegun conversion devices.
Additionally, Ervin was convicted of seven counts of transferring unregistered machinegun conversion devices, three counts of possessing unregistered machinegun conversion devices, and one count of structuring cash transactions to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.
Hoover was also convicted of four counts of transferring unregistered machinegun conversion devices.
Ervin produced around 300 prototypes of the device in October 2020, and Hoover began advertising it a month later. Ervin managed to sell approximately 2,000 of these devices within a few months, operating through a website.
“Subsequent investigation revealed that Ervin was running an online business selling machinegun conversion devices, known as lightning links, etched into metal cards, which he referred to as Auto Key Cards,” prosecutors said. “Ervin described the Auto Key Card as a ‘pen holder,’ a ‘novelty,’ and a ‘political sculpture.'”
Hoover's lawyer argued that the government's stance was "patently absurd," comparing it to selling a drawing of a hand grenade.
“If I sold you a McDonald’s cup saying ‘this is a hand grenade,'” he said, “‘I would like to sell this hand grenade to you.’ And you purchased it from me. Should I be guilty of a hand grenade?”
The lawyer added that his client's statements on the YouTube videos are protected by free speech.
Hoover's YouTube channel covered topics ranging from gun laws to shooting demonstrations. In one video, Hoover allegedly described how someone could modify the lightning link and turn a semi-automatic AR-15 into a fully automatic weapon.
Ervin came under ATF scrutiny when his bank raised suspicions about him trafficking in machine gun conversion devices. ATF agents, along with the US Postal Inspection Service, placed Ervin under surveillance and observed him sending dozens of packages containing the devices to a Jacksonville-area post office.
A firearms enforcement officer demonstrated that the device could make a semi-automatic AR-15 automatic within 40 minutes.
What was the outcome of raid on Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin's house?
Ervin's home was subsequently raided, revealing auto key cards containing more than 1,500 lightning links. The evidence showed that the conspiracy involved at least 6,600 individual lightning links.
After the raid of Ervin’s home, Hoover posted a video, apparently before he was charged, saying “I gotta admit, I would not want to be the prosecution.”
“I never thought somebody could get arrested for having a drawing,” he said. “If I were to draw a machine gun under current law or how the law is currently being enforced I would be arrested for manufacturing a machine gun,” as per Law & Crime.
“Investigating this case required dedication and tenacity on behalf of ATF’s Jacksonville Field Office and our partner agencies on this matter — the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” ATF Tampa Field Division Special Agent in Charge Kirk Howard said in a statement.
“Our work was necessary to prove the true nature of the Auto Key Cards being sold by Ervin and Hoover and disrupt their audacious scheme to circumvent federal firearms laws.”
Anyone in possession of an auto key card should contact the nearest ATF office or call 1-800-ATF-GUNS and make arrangements to surrender the device to ATF so that it can be destroyed.
