State Legality MatrixForced Reset TriggersRhode Island
Statute-cited, last verified 2026-07-28 · State detail verified 2026-07-31
Banned
No. Treated as prohibited under Rhode Island's rapid-fire device bans; statutory coverage of one-pull FRTs is contested.
Controlling law: R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-8(d) & 11-47-8.1
Contested entry
The 2018 device ban names bump-fire devices, binary triggers, and trigger cranks and turns on enabling full-automatic fire; forced reset triggers are not named, and § 11-47-8.1(d) expressly preserves ordinary replacement triggers. Coverage of one-pull FRTs is contested and untested in court. Makers uniformly refuse to ship FRTs to Rhode Island; this cell stays conservative at banned.
The statute in practice
Rhode Island General Laws sections 11-47-8 and 11-47-8.1 regulate specified rapid-fire devices, including bump-fire devices, binary triggers, and trigger cranks. Forced-reset triggers are not named in that list.
The statute's broader provisions turn on enabling a semiautomatic firearm to fire as a fully automatic firearm, while section 11-47-8.1 preserves ordinary replacement triggers. Applying those clauses to a one-round-per-function forced-reset mechanism remains a text-sensitive question.
What it means for you
Do not assume that the replacement-trigger exception resolves the issue for a trigger designed to change firing cadence. The actual mechanism must be compared with both the device definition and the exception.
Federal law
Under the 2025 DOJ settlement with Rare Breed Triggers, an FRT fires one round per trigger function and is not an NFA machine gun federally. The settlement covers rifles and grip-forward pistols; it does not extend to grip-fed handguns (Glock, S&W M&P, Canik), whose federal FRT status remains less settled. State bans operate independently of federal law through broader state machine-gun, trigger-activator, or rate-of-fire definitions.
Federal baseline verified 2026-07-28. Scope: Forced reset triggers (Rare Breed FRT-15, Dairyland Defender, and similar) and forced-reset selectors (AR Super Safety, ARC-Fire). One round per trigger function. Binary triggers are a separate class.
Common questions
No. Treated as prohibited under Rhode Island's rapid-fire device bans; statutory coverage of one-pull FRTs is contested. Controlling law: R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-8(d) & 11-47-8.1.
The controlling law is R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-8(d) & 11-47-8.1. Treated as prohibited under Rhode Island's rapid-fire device bans; statutory coverage of one-pull FRTs is contested.
Under the 2025 DOJ settlement with Rare Breed Triggers, an FRT fires one round per trigger function and is not an NFA machine gun federally. The settlement covers rifles and grip-forward pistols; it does not extend to grip-fed handguns (Glock, S&W M&P, Canik), whose federal FRT status remains less settled. State bans operate independently of federal law through broader state machine-gun, trigger-activator, or rate-of-fire definitions.