§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, 27 people were sentenced under §2K1.3, and 5 sentences (19%) were within the guideline range, a lower share than in the years on either side. The median prison term was 18 months, and all 27 people (100%) pleaded guilty.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Ex › §2K1.3: FY2019
In brief: In fiscal year 2019, 27 people were sentenced under §2K1.3, and 5 sentences (19%) were within the guideline range, a lower share than in the years on either side. The median prison term was 18 months, and all 27 people (100%) pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 27 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Few Sentences Were Within the Guideline Range
In fiscal year 2019, 5 of the 27 sentences (19%) were within the guideline range. 12 people (44%) were below the range at the government's request, and 9 (33%) were below it without a government request. One sentence (4%) was above the range.
The year before had 41% within the range, and the next year had 26%. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, the share was 34%. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2019, it was 51%.
Prison Terms
Of the 27 people, 23 (85%) received a prison term, and 3 (11%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term was 18 months.
A quarter of those sent to prison received 36 months or more, and a quarter received 9 months or less. The fiscal year 2018 median was 33 months, and the fiscal year 2020 median was 18 months. The full 2016 to 2025 median was 18 months, and the all-guidelines median for 2019 was 21 months.
Guideline and Offense Type
The guideline's full title is "Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials; Prohibited Transactions Involving Explosive Materials." The Commission counts these 27 cases in its firearms offense type. Federal fiscal year 2019 ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019. The Commission data is organized by that year, not by calendar year, and the count covers 76,538 people for all guidelines.
Plea Agreements
Every person pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Federal court overall had a guilty plea rate of 98% in 2019.
Of the guilty pleas, 78% had a written plea agreement, and 22% were straight pleas with no agreement. The year before, fiscal year 2018, had 6% straight pleas. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 27 people.
Release Terms, Payments, and Criminal History
Supervised release was ordered for 23 people (85%), and the median term was 36 months. A fine was ordered for 1 (4%), and restitution for 5 (19%).
In this group, 37% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 7% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 20 | 30 months | 95% |
| 2017 | 30 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2018 | 17 | 33 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 27 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 19 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 17 | 20.5 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 6 | 24.5 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2023 | 20 | 16.5 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 14 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 15 | 6.2 months | 100% |
Limits on What the Numbers Mean
The table lists every year with its count, median, and plea rate. The counts run from 6 to 30 a year, which is small, and the records do not say what changed in the share of sentences within the range.
Only people who were convicted and sentenced appear in the data. Acquittals and dismissals do not. Terms are those imposed, not served. The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial counterpart, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2K1.3 (27), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.