§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
In fiscal year 2023, 20 people were sentenced with §2K1.3 as the primary guideline. Of those, 14 (70%) received prison, with a median term of 16.5 months, and 6 (30%) received probation only. In addition, 9 sentences (45%) were below the range at the government's request.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Ex › §2K1.3: FY2023
In brief: In fiscal year 2023, 20 people were sentenced with §2K1.3 as the primary guideline. Of those, 14 (70%) received prison, with a median term of 16.5 months, and 6 (30%) received probation only. In addition, 9 sentences (45%) were below the range at the government's request.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 20 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. 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.
Below the Range at the Government's Request
In fiscal year 2023, 9 of the 20 sentences (45%) were below the guideline range at the government's request. Another 6 (30%) were below it without a request, and 5 (25%) were within the range. None was above the range.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2K1.3, 34% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, the share was 42%. The next year, fiscal year 2024, had 14% within the range.
Prison Terms and Probation
Of the 20 people, 14 (70%) were sent to prison. Another 6 (30%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 16.5 months. A quarter received 30.8 months or more, and a quarter received 6.5 months or less. The median for all years under this guideline was 18 months, and the next year, fiscal year 2024, also had 18 months. The all-guidelines median for 2023 was 30 months among 64,124 people.
Who Was Counted
The group is everyone sentenced between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023 whose primary guideline was §2K1.3. The Guidelines Manual gives its title as "Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials; Prohibited Transactions Involving Explosive Materials." The Commission places these cases in its firearms offense type. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count, so a case with several counts appears under only one guideline.
Pleas and Criminal History
All 20 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. All the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 20 people.
In this group, 55% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 20% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Release and Payments
Supervised release is a period of oversight after prison. It was ordered for 14 people (70%), with a median term of 36 months. It is ordered separately from the prison term, so the count of people under supervised release does not have to equal the count sent to prison. A fine was ordered for 1 person (5%), and restitution for 4 (20%).
| 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% |
What the Numbers Do Not Show
The table gives each year's count, median, and plea rate. Counts run from 6 to 30 a year. The records cannot tell whether the changes between years reflect anything beyond the different cases sentenced.
Only people convicted and sentenced are counted, and prison terms are those imposed. The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial counterpart, so this post reports federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2K1.3 (20), 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 2024 (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.