> ## 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. # §2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k2-1-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-firearms-fy2020/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:06:27.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:06:27.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2020, 7,091 people were sentenced in federal court with §2K2.1 as the primary guideline. Of the 6,655 who received a prison term (94%), the median was 37 months. The median was 91 months for the 218 people convicted at trial and sent to prison, and 37 months after a guilty plea. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Fi](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k2-1-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-firearms/) › §2K2.1: FY2020 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2020, 7,091 people were sentenced in federal court with §2K2.1 as the primary guideline. Of the 6,655 who received a prison term (94%), the median was 37 months. The median was 91 months for the 218 people convicted at trial and sent to prison, and 37 months after a guilty plea. 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 7,091 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020\. 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/). ## Prison Terms After a Plea and After a Trial The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 6,871 guilty pleas among the 7,091 people sentenced under this guideline in fiscal year 2020\. That is 97%. The other 220 people were convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 37 months. After a trial it was 91 months. The trial figure is based on 218 people who were convicted at trial and sent to prison. These figures compare groups of cases, not matched pairs. The records do not show how serious each case was, so they cannot show what a trial or a plea changed about a sentence. ## What This Guideline Covers Guideline §2K2.1 is titled "Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition; Prohibited Transactions Involving Firearms or Ammunition" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The Commission places these cases in its Firearms offense type, which held 7,091 people in this fiscal year. A case is counted under the primary guideline, which is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. Only people who were convicted and sentenced appear. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data. For court-martial readers, the approved crosswalk has no close military counterpart for this guideline. This post reports the federal numbers on their own. ## How the Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range Among the 7,090 people with this information recorded, 50% (3,578) were sentenced within the guideline range. Another 16% (1,126) received a sentence below the range at the government's request. A sentence below the range without a government request went to 29% (2,064), and 5% (322) were sentenced above the range. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 429 of the 7,090 people with that information, or 6%. Among guilty pleas, 77% had a written plea agreement and 22% were straight pleas with no agreement. ## Probation, Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was the sentence for 314 people (4%). The prison terms reported here are the terms imposed, not the time actually served. After prison, 6,571 people (93%) were ordered to serve supervised release. The median supervised release term was 36 months, and 1 person (less than 1%) received supervised release for life. A fine was ordered for 439 people (6%), and restitution for 160 (2%). ## Criminal History in These Cases In this fiscal year, 16% of the people sentenced were in criminal history category I, the lowest,, and 22% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so this measure has no military comparison. ## Fiscal Year 2020 Against Other Years and All Guidelines Fiscal year 2020 ran from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020\. Under §2K2.1 the previous year, 2019, had 7,952 people and a median prison term of 40 months. The next year, 2021, had 7,735 people and a median of 37 months. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 74,599 people were sentenced under this guideline. In that period, 94% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 40 months, 97% pleaded guilty, and 51% were sentenced within the guideline range. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 under every guideline, the count was 64,565 people. Their median prison term was 18 months, so the firearms median was higher than the all-guideline median. The table lists each year for this guideline. The data cannot show the facts of any case, the time actually served, or the reasons for any sentence. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 5,707 | 42 months | 96% | | 2017 | 6,366 | 40 months | 96% | | 2018 | 7,032 | 41 months | 97% | | 2019 | 7,952 | 40 months | 97% | | 2020 | 7,091 | 37 months | 97% | | 2021 | 7,735 | 37 months | 98% | | 2022 | 8,875 | 40 months | 97% | | 2023 | 8,393 | 41 months | 97% | | 2024 | 7,742 | 41 months | 97% | | 2025 | 7,706 | 42 months | 97% | ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2K2.1 (7,091), 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. **Mandatory minimum sentences.** Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge. ## 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) - [§2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k2-1-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-firearms/) (overview) - [§2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k2-1-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-firearms-fy2019/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [§2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2k2-1-unlawful-receipt-possession-or-transportation-of-firearms-fy2021/) (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.