Posted on 12/31/2025 12:27:25 PM PST by marktwain
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
a bank employee at the bank the company used Googled AutoKeyCard.
Why?
. He is now headed to a halfway house
= = =
Do they have a library, and a 3D printer available?
“According to Ervin, the purpose of the card was to ...”
$119.95 for a bottle opener.
I followed the links in the article, but I haven’t been able to figure out what an autokey does.
Converts a semi- to a full-automatic I would presume.
People who say about corporate surveillance that "it is not like the government is doing it" ignore the fact that there is no difference between a government agent watching you and someone doing the same thing in hope of a government reward.
Back in the days when we had many small businesses this was not so much of an issue. Chances of your local two building bank having a natural born snitch working there was low, there were few government incentives to snitch and people who did so were likely to be shunned by the community at large for sticking their nose into other people's business. And everybody knew who did it.
However now there are government incentives to "see something, say something", mega-sized businesses means that they have by sheer numbers any number of employees that are natural born sneaks and because they have no social or local connection to you they will sell anything they deem suspicious to the government in a heart beat.
Disgusting!
This is the first time I’m hearing it was not to scale.
Good Job for getting Freedom...
I’ve seen Matt feels certain to
Get his Firearms Back.
Thanks Dean
” A firearms enforcement officer was able to take out the lightning link from the auto key card and make a semi-automatic AR-15 automatic in about 40 minutes, prosecutors said. Larosiere argued that the officer was only able to use the device by making his own design and the rifle malfunctioned”
“The ATF believed”
So they claimed.
The AutoKey does nothing.
It is a not to scale etching of a "Lightning Link" that was a machined piece of metal that when inserted properly in an AR-15 receiver caused it to fire full auto. They used to sell them in the classified ads in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine and "Shotgun News" back in the day. ATF ruled it a machine gun and subject to to registration and $200 transfer fee.
It is an amazing piece of American ingenuity that someone could look at an AR-15 fire control and figure out how to make it.
Not to be confused with a DIAS (Drop In Auto Sear) which acts similarly but required replacing several AR-15 parts with M-16 parts that are not illegal to posses on their own.
A piece of metal with an etching on it. NOT a machine gun by any stretch of the imagination. Theoretically a drawing of it will land you prison too by ATF standards.
They are not a sane agency.
Which is the case with most of the federal government.
Their charter was to make sure any alcohol, tobacco or federally regulated firearms under the 1934 firearms act had the proper taxes paid on them when sold commercially.
They are a bunch of paper pushers for the treasury department.
How the heck did they turn into what they are today?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.