Felon in Possession of a Firearm: Sentencing, ACCA, and Enhancements

A federal felon in possession of a firearm sentence can reach 15 years in prison, but the average sentence handed down in fiscal year 2024 was about 71 months, or roughly six years.¹ The number you actually face depends on your criminal history, the type of weapon, whether the Armed Career Criminal Act’s 15-year mandatory minimum kicks in, and enhancements for things like a stolen gun or a missing serial number. State charges can pile on top of the federal case, and the same ban covers ammunition, not just guns.

The Federal Maximum and What Most People Actually Get

The federal prohibition is in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), which bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing, shipping, or receiving a firearm or ammunition.² The penalty statute, 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(8), caps the sentence at 15 years.³ Congress raised the ceiling from 10 to 15 years, which moved felon-in-possession from a Class D to a Class C felony under the federal classification scheme.⁴

Few defendants get the full 15 on a straightforward possession charge. The U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that nearly 98% of people convicted under § 922(g) in fiscal year 2024 received prison time, averaging 71 months. For defendants not subject to any mandatory minimum, the average dropped to 67 months.¹

How Federal Sentencing Guidelines Produce the Number

Federal judges start with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Guideline § 2K2.1 assigns a base offense level, which combines with your criminal history category on a sentencing table to produce a range in months.

Base Offense Levels

The starting point for a straightforward possession by a prohibited person is level 14. Prior convictions and weapon type push it higher:

Level 20 applies when the defendant has one prior conviction for a violent crime or drug trafficking offense, or the weapon was a semiautomatic that accepts a large-capacity magazine or a weapon regulated under the National Firearms Act (short-barreled rifles, machine guns, and similar).
Level 22 combines both: an NFA weapon or large-capacity semiautomatic plus one qualifying prior.
Level 24 applies when the defendant has two or more prior violent or drug convictions.
Level 26 combines two or more qualifying priors with an NFA weapon or large-capacity semiautomatic.

Those base levels come from the Sentencing Commission’s firearms guidelines, which the Commission updates periodically.⁵

Criminal History Categories

Your offense level is only half of the calculation. Criminal history runs from Category I (minimal record) to Category VI (extensive). At base level 14, ranges span from 15 to 21 months at Category I up to 37 to 46 months at Category VI.⁶ Once enhancements or qualifying priors push the offense level to 20 or above, those ranges climb sharply. That’s how average sentences settle around six years even though level 14 by itself suggests far less.

Acceptance of Responsibility

Under Guideline § 3E1.1, a defendant who clearly accepts responsibility earns a two-level decrease. If the offense level before that decrease was 16 or higher, the government can file a motion for an additional one-level cut, provided the defendant notified authorities early enough to avoid trial preparation.⁷ The extra level requires a government motion and is not automatic, but prosecutors routinely file it when a defendant cooperates early.

Enhancements That Add Years

On top of the base level, specific offense characteristics under Guideline § 2K2.1 can stack and add significant time.

A stolen firearm adds two levels, whether or not the defendant knew it was stolen.
An altered or obliterated serial number adds four levels.
Ghost guns (privately manufactured firearms with no serial number) trigger the same four-level increase as an obliterated serial number, effective November 2023. The Sentencing Commission concluded there is no meaningful difference between removing a serial number and never having one.⁸
Possession in connection with another felony (drug trafficking, assault, and similar) adds four levels with a minimum resulting offense level of 18.
Three to seven firearms adds two levels; eight to 24 firearms adds four; the increase scales up from there.

The stolen-firearm and serial-number enhancements come from Guideline § 2K2.1(b)(4).⁹ A defendant caught with a stolen ghost gun during a drug deal can face the base level plus multiple stacked enhancements, landing in a range that approaches or exceeds ten years.

The Armed Career Criminal Act Mandatory Minimum

The sharpest cliff in felon-in-possession sentencing is the Armed Career Criminal Act. Violate § 922(g) with three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses committed on separate occasions, and the court must impose a mandatory minimum of 15 years. The judge cannot suspend the sentence or grant probation, and 15 years is the floor, not the ceiling.¹⁰

What counts as a triggering conviction matters. A “violent felony” is any crime punishable by more than a year in prison that involves the use or threatened use of physical force, or specifically listed offenses like burglary, arson, and extortion. A “serious drug offense” is a federal or state drug crime carrying a maximum of ten years or more.¹⁰ Only about 2.6% of § 922(g) defendants in fiscal year 2024 were sentenced under the ACCA, but those who were received an average sentence of 199 months, over 16 years.¹

Which Prior Convictions Actually Count

Not every felony triggers § 922(g). The statute defines the qualifying offense as “a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,” with two carve-outs. Federal and state offenses tied to antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, and similar business regulatory crimes do not count. Neither does a state offense classified as a misdemeanor under state law and punishable by two years or less, even if the maximum technically exceeds one year.¹¹

Pardons, expungements, and restorations of civil rights also affect the count. A conviction that has been expunged, set aside, or pardoned does not disqualify you, unless the pardon or restoration order specifically says you still cannot possess firearms.¹¹ The language of the relief document controls. A governor’s pardon that says nothing about guns generally restores federal firearm rights. One that includes a firearms restriction does not.

Ammunition Carries the Same Penalty

Section 922(g) bans a prohibited person from possessing “any firearm or ammunition.”² Federal prosecutors can charge you for a box of cartridges in a closet with no gun anywhere on the premises. The maximum is the same: up to 15 years.³ A narrow exemption covers antique firearms (generally, those manufactured in or before 1898 and certain replicas and muzzle-loaders) because they fall outside the legal definition of “firearm.”¹¹ Some states do not recognize that exemption.

State Charges on Top of Federal

Federal prosecution is only part of the picture. Every state has its own felon-in-possession law. Penalties vary widely: some states treat it as a mid-level felony with sentences of one to five years, others impose mandatory minimums or scale penalties based on whether the prior involved violence, and fines can reach $25,000 in some jurisdictions.

You can face both state and federal charges for the same act of possession. Under the dual sovereignty doctrine, the federal government and each state are separate sovereigns, and a prosecution by one does not bar prosecution by the other. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Gamble v. United States, where a defendant was convicted by both Alabama and the federal government for the same firearms violation and the Court upheld both convictions. Dual prosecution isn’t the norm for a routine case, but it happens when aggravating facts attract federal attention: a violent record, a link to drug trafficking, or possession during another crime.

Supervised Release After Prison

Federal prison time doesn’t end at the gate. Defendants typically serve a term of supervised release after their sentence. For felon-in-possession, now classified as a Class C felony given the 15-year maximum, supervised release can last up to three years.¹² Conditions usually include check-ins with a probation officer, drug testing, employment requirements, and an absolute prohibition on possessing firearms or ammunition. Violating any condition can send you back to prison.

The Constitutional Landscape Is Still Moving

The legal ground under felon-in-possession laws has been shifting since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which required gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation. That standard triggered a wave of challenges to § 922(g)(1), especially from defendants with nonviolent felony records.

The Third Circuit dealt the most significant blow in Range v. Attorney General, holding that § 922(g)(1) was unconstitutional as applied to a man whose only disqualifying conviction was a false statement to obtain food stamp benefits. The government, the court found, could not show a historical tradition of disarming people like Range.¹³ The Sixth and Tenth Circuits have reached the opposite conclusion and upheld § 922(g)(1) against similar challenges.¹⁴

The Supreme Court has vacated and remanded some of these cases for reconsideration under its 2024 decision in United States v. Rahimi, which upheld the firearms ban for domestic violence restraining order subjects and clarified that the historical-tradition test looks at broad principles rather than exact historical matches. Most courts have read Rahimi as supporting § 922(g)(1), but the as-applied question for genuinely nonviolent offenders remains unresolved. If you have a nonviolent conviction and are facing prosecution, the constitutional argument is worth raising with a defense attorney, because the answer to whether the statute survives depends on where you’re charged.

1
United States Sentencing Commission. Section 922(g) Firearms Quick Facts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
5
United States Sentencing Commission. Primer on Firearms Offenses
6
United States Sentencing Commission. Sentencing Table
7
United States Sentencing Commission. Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual – Acceptance of Responsibility
8
United States Sentencing Commission. Amendment 819
9
United States Sentencing Commission. 2K2.1 – Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3583 – Inclusion of a Term of Supervised Release After Imprisonment
13
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Range v. Attorney General
14
Congressional Research Service. Congressional Court Watcher – Circuit Splits From February 2025