> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k1-3-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-explosive-fy2024/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:57:18.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:57:18.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2024, 14 people were sentenced under §2K1.3, and 7 sentences (50%) were below the guideline range at the government's request. The median prison term was 18 months. All 14 (100%) pleaded guilty. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Ex](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k1-3-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-explosive/) › §2K1.3: FY2024 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2024, 14 people were sentenced under §2K1.3, and 7 sentences (50%) were below the guideline range at the government's request. The median prison term was 18 months. All 14 (100%) pleaded guilty. Updated November 4, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 14 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024\. 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/). ## Sentences Below the Range at the Government's Request Of the 14 sentences, 7 (50%) were below the guideline range at the government's request. Another 4 (29%) were below it without such a request. 2 sentences (14%) were within the range, and 1 (7%) was above it. The share within the range was 25% in fiscal year 2023 and 33% in fiscal year 2025\. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, it was 34%. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2024, it was 46%. ## Prison Terms Of the 14 people, 11 (79%) received a prison term, and 2 (14%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term was 18 months. A quarter received 25.5 months or more, and a quarter received 7 months or less. The previous year's median was 16.5 months, and the next year's was 6.2 months. The median across all years under the guideline was 18 months. ## A Small Count Only 14 people were sentenced under this guideline in fiscal year 2024, which ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024\. The count is small. A sentence below the range at the government's request usually follows a prosecutor's motion, for example for cooperation, although the records do not give the reason in any individual case. With so few people, one case changes the percentages by a large amount. Across federal court that year, 61,678 people were sentenced under all guidelines, and the median prison term was 30 months. ## The Guideline and Its Offense Type In the Guidelines Manual, §2K1.3 is titled "Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials; Prohibited Transactions Involving Explosive Materials." The Commission counts these cases within its firearms offense type. ## Pleas, Supervised Release, and Payments All 14 people pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Of the guilty pleas, 86% had a written plea agreement and 14% were straight pleas. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 14 people. A mandatory minimum is a term that a statute sets as the lowest a court may impose. Supervised release was ordered for 11 people (79%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 1 (7%), and restitution for 2 (14%). In this group, 29% were in criminal history category I and 0% in category VI. 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% | ## What the Records Cannot Show The data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are absent. The records also give no case facts, so they cannot say what kind of conduct produced any sentence, or why the count was lower in 2024 than in some other years. Prison terms are those imposed, not time served. No close court-martial counterpart for this guideline appears in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2K1.3 (14), 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article) - [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts) - [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method) - [§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k1-3-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-explosive/) (overview) - [§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k1-3-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-explosive-fy2023/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [§2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k1-3-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-explosive-fy2025/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-sentences-outside-guideline-range/) - [Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-mandatory-minimum-sentences/) - [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source) - [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.