Compliance Guides
Step-by-step guides to help you navigate Rhode Island firearms compliance.
First-Time Buyer
2New Gun Owner's Guide to Rhode Island Law
A step-by-step guide for first-time firearms buyers in Rhode Island, covering the handgun safety certification (Blue Card), background check process, seven-day waiting period for handguns and long guns, and safe storage obligations. This guide walks new owners through every stage of their first legal purchase.
Private Sales and Firearms Transfer Procedures
Rhode Island requires background checks for private sales and transfers of handguns under RIGL 11-47-35, except for the sales that section exempts and the persons exempted by RIGL 11-47-35.1. The process involves filing an application with the local police chief or state police, a seven-day waiting period, and a background check. This guide explains the step-by-step process, limited exemptions, how long gun transfers differ, and the penalties for non-compliance.
Compliance Guides
10Ammunition Purchase Requirements in Rhode Island
Unless exempt under RIGL 11-47-64(c), ammunition buyers must be 21 or older and hold a valid DEM Blue Card or Rhode Island hunter education course card under RIGL 11-47-64. There is no ammunition background check. This guide explains the real requirement, the exemptions, and the federal age rules.
AWB Compliance Guide: Rhode Island's Assault Weapons Ban in Effect
Rhode Island's assault weapons ban (S 0359A, P.L. 2025, ch. 281, RIGL Chapter 11-47.2) took effect July 1, 2026. This guide explains the characteristics-based definition of prohibited firearms, continued lawful possession, and the sale and transfer restrictions now in effect.
Domestic Violence and Firearms: Surrender Process Guide
Rhode Island requires a defendant ordered to surrender firearms under a Chapter 8.1 protective order to surrender them within 24 hours of notice of the order, and requires a person who pleads nolo contendere to or is convicted of a qualifying domestic violence offense to surrender firearms within 24 hours. This guide covers the federal Lautenberg Amendment, Rhode Island's state-level provisions under RIGL 8-8.1 and 11-47-5.3, the practical surrender process, storage options, the return process after an order expires, and the intersection with Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
How to Restore Your Firearms Rights After Disqualification
Rhode Island provides a statutory pathway for certain disqualified persons to petition the Relief from Disqualifiers Board for restoration of firearms rights under RIGL 11-47-63. This guide explains eligibility, the petition process, waiting periods, Board factors, appeals, and federal limits.
Moving to Rhode Island: A New Resident's Firearms Guide
Relocating to Rhode Island with firearms? What to check on magazines and prohibited items before the move, the Blue Card or equivalent DEM hunter safety proof for handgun purchases unless exempt, hunter safety reciprocity, and the rules for carrying once you arrive.
Prohibited Persons: Who Cannot Own Firearms in Rhode Island
Rhode Island law prohibits several categories of persons from possessing firearms, including persons convicted of a crime of violence, fugitives from justice, persons convicted of certain domestic violence offenses, persons under guardianship, treatment or confinement as mental incompetents or drug addicts, minors outside the supervised settings and activities RIGL 11-47-33 allows, and persons subject to certain protective orders. This guide covers each category under RIGL 11-47-5, 11-47-6, and 11-47-33, as well as overlapping federal prohibitions under 18 U.S.C. 922(g).
Red Flag Laws: Understanding Rhode Island ERPOs
Rhode Island's Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) statute, codified in RIGL Title 8, Chapter 8.3, allows a law enforcement agency to petition the Superior Court for an order that temporarily removes firearms from a person who poses a significant danger of causing imminent personal injury to self or others. This guide explains who can petition, the ex parte process, full hearings, duration of orders, firearms surrender and storage procedures, and the rights of respondents.
Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban: How the Feature Test Applies to Rifles, Pistols, and Shotguns
Rhode Island's assault weapons ban defines covered firearms by characteristics, not by name. The one-feature test applies to semi-automatic rifles. Semi-automatic pistols are covered by a fixed magazine capacity over ten rounds, and any semi-automatic firearm that can accept a belt ammunition feeding device is covered separately. This guide walks through the enacted statute by firearm type and explains that the pistol feature test in the bill as introduced is not the law.
Safe Storage Requirements Guide
A practical guide to Rhode Island's safe storage requirements, including the original provisions under RIGL 11-47-60.1 and the 2024 expansion. Covers specific scenarios, acceptable storage methods, and criminal liability when a child or a prohibited person is likely to gain access to a firearm and obtains access.
Understanding Rhode Island Firearms Penalties
Rhode Island firearms penalties range from civil infractions (safe storage violations) to felonies carrying mandatory minimum sentences (possession by a person convicted of a crime of violence). This guide provides an overview of the penalty structure across the most common firearms offenses, including carrying without a permit, possession by prohibited persons, mandatory minimums, sentencing enhancements, safe storage violations, and the penalties under the assault weapons ban, which took effect on July 1, 2026.
Transport and Travel
2Non-Resident Guide to Rhode Island Firearms Laws
A comprehensive guide for non-residents who bring firearms into Rhode Island, covering the transport exemption under RIGL 11-47-10, the lack of reciprocity, the Attorney General LCCW track available to non-residents under RIGL 11-47-18, FOPA protections for interstate travel, prohibited places that apply to all persons, and practical steps for lawful transport.
Traveling Between RI, MA, and CT with Firearms
Rhode Island does not have concealed carry reciprocity with Massachusetts or Connecticut. This guide covers the legal requirements for transporting firearms across these state lines, the protections offered by the federal Firearms Owners' Protection Act (FOPA), and the specific rules each state imposes on non-residents.