Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 2024 ‘Firearm Prohibitions in Rhode Island.’ Who Can Have a Gun. San Francisco, CA: Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 25 April
Relevant contents
Prohibited Purchasers Generally in Rhode Island
Federal law prohibits certain persons from purchasing or possessing firearms, such as felons, certain domestic abusers, and certain people with a history of mental illness.
Rhode Island has adopted its own classes of prohibited persons, and incorporated some federal prohibitions as state offenses. Subject to limited exceptions, no person shall purchase, own, carry, transport, or possess a firearm if he or she:
- Has been convicted of a crime of violence;
- Is a fugitive from justice;
- Is in community confinement or under electronic surveillance or monitoring devices as a condition of parole and has been convicted of a crime of violence;
- Has been convicted of a felony domestic violence offense within the past two years;
- Is under guardianship, treatment or confinement "by virtue of being a mental incompetent";
- Has been adjudicated or is under treatment or confinement as a drug addict or habitual drunkard; or
- Is an illegal alien.
As noted above, Rhode Island prohibits any person from purchasing, owning, carrying, transporting or possessing or controlling any firearm if he or she is under guardianship, treatment or confinement "by virtue of being a mental incompetent." Unless the person has been pronounced criminally insane by competent medical authority, after the duration of five years, the person may apply to purchase a firearm upon presentation of an affidavit issued by competent medical authority stating that the person is mentally stable and a "proper person" to possess a gun.
Rhode Island generally prohibits any person under age 18 from possessing or using any firearm or ammunition…
If a court, following notice to the respondent and a hearing, issues a protective order that requires the subject of that order to surrender his or her firearms, that person may not purchase or receive, or attempt to purchase or receive, any firearm for the duration of the order…
[Editor's note: The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence regularly updates its webpages with new data as US gun regulation evolves state by state. For the most up-to-date information on US gun laws, please refer to the Giffords URL below]