Hudsonville Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing and Transferring a Machinegun

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Timothy VerHey today announced that Ethan Carter, 19, of Hudsonville, pleaded guilty to possession and transfer of a machinegun.  Carter is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9, 2026, at 3:00PM and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney VerHey said, “People living in our at-risk neighborhoods already know how machinegun conversion devices have made gun violence much worse.  We are doing all we can to find and stop the people who possess and sell this equipment. I applaud the ATF agents for the work they did to bring this case to us for prosecution.”

In June 2025, Carter gave a machinegun conversion device to another person. When installed on a semiautomatic gun, a machinegun conversion device allows the weapon to shoot automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single pull of the trigger. ATF executed a search warrant at Carter’s home several weeks later and found approximately six additional machinegun conversion devices, as well as a Glock pistol with a machinegun conversion device installed.

“Machinegun conversion devices (MCDs) can transform legal firearms into machineguns capable of shooting at an extremely deadly rate. Possessing or transferring these types of illegal devices is a serious federal crime,” said ATF Detroit Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Keith Krolczyk. “Working alongside our federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement partners, ATF will aggressively pursue and hold accountable anyone who criminally possesses or distributes MCDs to protect our communities from violent crime.”

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.