Rhode Island General Laws Section 11-47-8(d)[1] prohibits the possession, sale, transfer, and manufacture of bump stocks, binary triggers, trigger cranks, and any similar device designed to accelerate the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm. The legislature enacted this prohibition in June 2018 in response to the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, where the attacker used bump stock devices to fire at a sustained rate approximating automatic fire.
Covered Devices
The statute defines the prohibited category broadly. A bump stock is any device that replaces the standard stock of a semi-automatic firearm and allows the weapon to use recoil energy to slide back and forth, repeatedly engaging the trigger. A binary trigger fires one round on the trigger pull and a second round on the trigger release. A trigger crank is a device that attaches to the trigger guard and uses a rotating mechanism to repeatedly actuate the trigger. The catch-all provision captures "any similar device" designed to increase the rate of fire, which gives the statute forward-looking coverage over devices not yet invented.[2]
Relationship to Federal Law
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a rule in 2018 classifying bump stocks as machine guns under the National Firearms Act. The Supreme Court struck down that federal rule in Garland v. Cargill (2024), holding that bump stocks do not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun. In a follow-on regulatory action, ATF published a final rule on May 6, 2026 (FR Doc 2026-08926) formally removing bump-stock language from the three regulatory definitions of "machine gun" in 27 CFR, conforming federal regulations to the Cargill holding.[4] That federal regulatory cleanup has no effect on Rhode Island's state-level ban, which rests on an independent statutory authority under Section 11-47-8(d). Rhode Island residents remain prohibited from possessing these devices regardless of the federal outcome.
Penalties
Violations carry criminal penalties including imprisonment and fines consistent with other prohibited weapons offenses under Chapter 11-47.[3] There is no grandfather clause for devices possessed before the effective date. All bump stocks, binary triggers, and trigger cranks must have been surrendered to law enforcement, destroyed, or transferred out of state by the time the ban took effect.