§2K2.1 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
Under §2K2.1, 74,599 people were sentenced in federal court from fiscal year 2016 to 2025. 94% received prison, and the median prison term was 40 months. After a trial the median was 87 months.
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In brief: Under §2K2.1, 74,599 people were sentenced in federal court from fiscal year 2016 to 2025. 94% received prison, and the median prison term was 40 months. After a trial the median was 87 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 74,599 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 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.
Firearms and Ammunition Cases in Federal Court
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2K2.1 "Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition; Prohibited Transactions Involving Firearms or Ammunition." The title covers receiving, possessing, and transporting firearms or ammunition, plus prohibited transactions involving them.
The Sentencing Commission counted 74,599 people sentenced with this as the primary guideline in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Only convicted and sentenced people are in the data.
The Sentences Imposed
70,290 people (94%) received a prison term. 3,240 (4%) received probation only. The median prison term was 40 months (3.3 years), with a quarter at 66 months or more and a quarter at 24 months or less. 5 people received a life sentence.
The guideline range is the reference point for each sentence. Of 74,583 cases with the information, 51% (38,291) were within the range. 17% (12,842) were below the range at the government's request, and 26% (19,691) were below it without a government request. 5% (3,759) were above the range.
How Guilty Pleas and Trials Compare
72,415 people (97%) pleaded guilty, and 2,184 were convicted after a trial. 77% of guilty pleas included a written plea agreement, and 23% were straight pleas.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 40 months. After a trial it was 87 months, from 2,151 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. The trial group is small, and the records do not show what the cases had in common.
Mandatory Minimums Were Not the Norm
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 4,370 people (6%).
Supervised release was ordered for 69,421 people (93%), with a median term of 36 months. 7 people (less than 1%) received it for life. A fine was ordered for 4,170 (6%), and restitution for 1,956 (3%).
Criminal History
Criminal history was spread across the scale here. 17% of people were in the lowest category, and 21% were in the highest. Court-martial records have no such field, so the military cannot be compared on this point.
Has the Median Moved Over the Years?
Barely. The median prison term was 42 months in fiscal year 2016 and 42 months in 2025. In between it ran from 37 months in 2020 and 2021 to 41 months in 2018, 2023, and 2024. Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 27,057 people with a median of 41 months, and fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 47,542 people with a median of 40 months.
The count of people sentenced rose from 5,707 in 2016 to 8,875 in 2022 and was 7,706 in 2025. The records do not say why.
| 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% |
Military Crosswalk and Limits
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers appear here. The data also cannot show the facts of any case, and it counts terms imposed, not time served.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2K2.1 (74,599), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's 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 (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2K1.4 Arson: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2K1.3 Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2K2.5 Possession of Firearm or Dangerous Weapon in Federal Facility: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2K1.1 Failure to Report Theft of Explosive Materials: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- 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.