Does Rhode Island Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Rhode Island General Laws chapter 11-47.2 took effect July 1, 2026 and uses the term prohibited firearm. Under section 11-47.2-1, a semi-automatic rifle that can accept a detachable magazine is covered with one of a folding or telescoping stock, a bayonet mount, a grenade launcher, a barrel shroud, a pistol grip or thumbhole stock, or a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate one. Separate branches cover fixed-magazine rifles over 10 rounds, pistols with a fixed magazine over 10 rounds, shotguns with a fixed magazine over six rounds or a revolving cylinder, and belt-fed semiautomatic firearms.

Section 11-47.2-2 addresses manufacture, sale, offer for sale, transfer, and purchase. Its limited exceptions allow specified dealer, law-enforcement, and out-of-state dispositions; they do not create a general in-state private-transfer route.

There has been no federal assault weapons ban since the 1994 ban expired in 2004; no feature restrictions apply federally to semi-automatic rifles or pistols. The 2023 ATF pistol-brace rule was vacated by the courts and is not enforced, but federal SBR classification for a brace-equipped firearm still turns on whether the specific weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder. Garland v. Cargill (2024) held that a bump stock is not a machine gun under federal law. Feature bans are entirely a matter of state law.

Federal baseline verified 2026-10-20. Scope: State laws restricting semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns by configuration features: threaded barrels, pistol grips, folding or telescoping stocks, flash suppressors, forward grips, and similar. Magazine capacity limits are tracked as a separate class.