18 U.S.C. 924, Penalties: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
Of the 22,123 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case fell under 18 U.S.C. 924, 20,556 (93%) were convicted in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Most pleaded guilty: 19,633, or 89%. Among those convicted, 96% received a prison term on that charge, and the median term was 60 mont
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In brief: Of the 22,123 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case fell under 18 U.S.C. 924, 20,556 (93%) were convicted in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Most pleaded guilty: 19,633, or 89%. Among those convicted, 96% received a prison term on that charge, and the median term was 60 months (5 years).
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 22,123 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced 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.
Prison Terms on This Charge
Title 18, section 924 of the U.S. Code is headed "Penalties". This post uses only that heading to identify the section. The counts come from Federal Judicial Center records of cases that ended, sorted by the most serious charge left at the end of each case.
Of the 20,556 defendants convicted, 19,812 received a prison term on this charge. That is 96% of those convicted. The median term among defendants sentenced to 1 month or more was 60 months, or 5 years. Another 191 defendants received life.
A median is the middle term when all terms are lined up from shortest to longest. It does not show how widely the sentences varied. The records here do not break the terms down further.
Felony Charges Almost Without Exception
Nearly every defendant in this group faced a felony on this charge: 22,113, which is more than 99%. Only 10 faced a Class A misdemeanor, and 0 faced a petty offense.
The level recorded is the level of the charge at the end of the case. It is not necessarily the charge filed at the start.
Guilty Pleas, Dismissals, and Trials
Of the 22,123 defendants, 19,633 (89%) pleaded guilty. Another 1,454 (7%) had their cases dismissed. Only 1,036 (5%) went to trial.
Dismissed in these records means the charges were dismissed. That includes dismissals on the government's motion, which can happen after a defendant pleaded guilty in another case. A dismissal is therefore not the same as a finding of innocence.
The yearly counts are steady. Cases ended per fiscal year ranged from 1,723 in 2016 to 2,672 in 2019, and the guilty plea rate stayed between 87% and 90% in every year.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,723 | 87% | 7% | 103 | 11 (11%) |
| 2017 | 1,875 | 87% | 7% | 122 | 16 (13%) |
| 2018 | 2,175 | 88% | 6% | 119 | 15 (13%) |
| 2019 | 2,672 | 89% | 7% | 111 | 13 (12%) |
| 2020 | 2,276 | 88% | 7% | 105 | 9 (9%) |
| 2021 | 2,339 | 90% | 7% | 81 | 7 (9%) |
| 2022 | 2,371 | 89% | 7% | 93 | 15 (16%) |
| 2023 | 2,455 | 90% | 6% | 103 | 4 (4%) |
| 2024 | 2,214 | 89% | 6% | 105 | 11 (10%) |
| 2025 | 2,023 | 89% | 6% | 94 | 12 (13%) |
How Often Did Trials End in Acquittal?
Of the 1,036 trials, 113 ended in an acquittal, or 11%. Most trials were jury trials: 949, with 84 acquittals (9%).
Bench trials, decided by a judge without a jury, were far fewer: 87, with 29 acquittals (33%). Bench trials ended in acquittal more often than jury trials. Jury and bench trials are not the same kinds of cases, so the records cannot show whether the type of trial made any difference.
Across fiscal years, the number of acquittals ranged from 4 in 2023 to 16 in 2017. Those yearly counts are small next to the total number of cases.
Type of Counsel at the End of the Case
A CJA panel attorney, a private lawyer appointed by the court, represented 10,246 defendants (46%). Federal public or community defenders represented 8,341 (38%). Retained private counsel represented 3,197 (14%), and 17 defendants represented themselves.
Guilty plea rates were 92% for public or community defenders, 88% for CJA panel attorneys, and 91% for retained counsel. Each group had a dismissal rate of 5%. Trial acquittal rates were 15%, 9%, and 13%.
These are differences between groups of cases, not a measure of the quality of lawyers. Defendants who hire a lawyer and those who receive an appointed lawyer face different charges and circumstances. Type of counsel is also recorded only at the end of the case.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 8,341 | 92% | 5% | 207 | 31 (15%) |
| CJA panel attorney | 10,246 | 88% | 5% | 687 | 63 (9%) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 3,197 | 91% | 5% | 136 | 18 (13%) |
| Self-represented | 17 | 59% | 6% | 6 | 1 (1 of 6) |
What These Records Do Not Show
These counts follow the most serious charge at the end of each case, so they leave out defendants for whom this section was only a lesser charge. They do not show the facts of any case, the evidence, or the reasons a case was dismissed or a jury acquitted.
No close court-martial counterpart for this section appears in the approved crosswalk. The post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 18 U.S.C. 924, any subsection (22,123), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
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
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
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.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
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)
- 18 U.S.C. 912, Officer or employee of the United States: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 922, Unlawful acts: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 930, Possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in Federal facilities: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 933, Trafficking in firearms: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2023–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- 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.