Rhode Island General Laws Section 11-47-8(d)[1] makes it unlawful to possess a bump-fire device, binary trigger, trigger crank, or any other device that, when attached to a semi-automatic weapon, allows full-automatic fire. The statute is framed as a possession ban, and owners were given ninety days from enactment to sell, destroy, or otherwise remove these devices from the state. 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-fire stock is defined in Section 11-47-2 as any device that replaces a semi-automatic weapon's standard stock and is designed to slide back and forth rapidly, harnessing the weapon's recoil to rapidly fire the weapon. 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 other device that when attached to a semi-automatic weapon allows full-automatic fire," which gives the statute forward-looking coverage over future devices that enable full-automatic fire. The three named devices are banned outright, but the catch-all does not reach accessories that merely increase the rate of fire without allowing full-automatic fire.[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 are punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both, and except for a first conviction the offender may not receive a suspended or deferred sentence or probation.[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.