State Legality MatrixBinary TriggersRhode Island
Statute-cited, not legal advice, last verified 2026-10-20
Banned
No. Expressly prohibits possession of a binary trigger.
Controlling law: R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-8(d)
Contested entry
Section 11-47-8(d) makes it unlawful to possess a bump-fire device, binary trigger, or trigger crank; a conviction carries 1 to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine up to $10,000, or both.
The statute in practice
Rhode Island General Laws section 11-47-8(d) 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. A conviction carries 1 to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine up to $10,000, or both, so the analysis does not depend on extending the state's machine-gun definition by analogy.
Timeline
Federal law
Binary triggers are legal under federal law and are not machine guns under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b); ATF treats the trigger pull and the trigger release as two separate functions of the trigger, so one round is fired per function. Cargill v. Garland (2024) concerned bump stocks, not binary triggers, and does not change this.
Federal baseline verified 2026-10-20. Scope: Binary triggers (Franklin Armory BFSIII and similar): fire one round on trigger pull and one on release. Forced reset triggers are a separate class.
Common questions
No. Expressly prohibits possession of a binary trigger. Controlling law: R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-8(d).
The controlling law is R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-8(d). Expressly prohibits possession of a binary trigger.