Rhode Island

Confirmed directly from a statute mirror: R.I. Gen. Laws §11-47-8 requires a license/permit to carry a pistol or revolver 'in any vehicle ... or on or about his or her person whether visible or concealed' outside one's home/business/land. So a license is required for ANY public carry, open or concealed — there is no permitless option, but nothing in the statute restricts a license-holder to concealment only. Rhode Island's licensing is also unusually bifurcated (RI Attorney General statewide permits vs. local police-chief-issued permits), and I could not confirm current shall-issue practice for both tracks post-Bruen this session.

Rhode Island has no statute prohibiting firearms in places of worship; carry there is a property-owner decision.

I could not locate or load a working primary source (R.I. Gen. Laws Title 11, Chapter 47) confirming whether Rhode Island restricts carry-license holders in restaurants or bars serving alcohol. No reliable secondary source addressed it either. Genuinely unresolved from the research performed.

Rhode Island's concealed-carry statute framework (R.I. Gen. Laws Title 11, Ch. 47) is described by Rhode Island gun-law summaries as prohibiting firearms — even with a valid License to Carry a Concealed Weapon — in 'state and national parks' (citing RIGL § 11-47-60, which is primarily a schools statute but is reported to reach state parks in practice/guidance) among other places. Since many Rhode Island boat-launch and pond/lake access points sit within state park land (e.g., Lincoln Woods, various DEM-managed ponds), whether carry is allowed can depend on whether that specific launch or waterway is inside state park land; open coastal/Narragansett Bay waters away from park land appear unrestricted.

I could not find a Rhode Island criminal statute that itself bans concealed-carry licensees from courthouses or government buildings the way most states have; the Rhode Island Attorney General's own post-Bruen guidance and the Judiciary's Executive Order 15-07 indicate courthouse weapons restrictions are enforced through administrative/judicial security policy (screening, building rules) rather than a codified place-restriction statute, and no general statewide 'government building' ban surfaced either. Practically, courthouses do screen and exclude firearms; other government buildings vary by individual agency policy.

Rhode Island has no statute governing campus carry; institutions set their own policy. As of Jan. 2025 every Rhode Island public and private college/university (including URI) prohibited concealed carry.

Could not obtain a direct, specific statutory or official confirmation this session (Rhode Island state sources returned errors/were uninformative beyond definitions). Rhode Island is generally understood to follow the ordinary opt-out/trespass model with no known opt-in statute, but flagged conditional pending direct verification of the specific provision.

No RI statute requires advance owner consent for carry on non-public private property; general willful-trespass law (R.I. Gen. Laws 11-44-1) requires notice. RI's restrictiveness is concentrated in may-issue permit issuance, not a private-property consent default. Not independently re-verified via direct fetch this session.

No Rhode Island source I found mentions airports; the only prohibited-places items I could find relate to state/national forests, wildlife management areas, and roadside rest areas, which reads as an incomplete list rather than a comprehensive one. Unconfirmed either way.

Rhode Island requires a license to carry to have a handgun in a vehicle. A narrow exception allows transporting an unloaded handgun (broken down or otherwise secured/unloaded) between home/business and a target range without a license. Loaded rifles/shotguns in a vehicle on public roads are separately prohibited.

No Rhode Island statute prohibits firearms in hospitals.

Rhode Island requires a license to carry a pistol 'in any vehicle or conveyance ... whether visible or concealed' (R.I. Gen. Laws §11-47-8); the licensing statute itself contains no sensitive-place or rest-area restriction. Verified against the statute text directly.

No Rhode Island statute found imposing a duty to inform law enforcement of concealed carry, proactively or if asked.

Under the local-authority track (R.I.G.L. § 11-47-11), a non-resident may qualify if they "reside within the United States and have a license or permit issued by any other state." The separate Attorney General "proper showing of need" track (§11-47-18) does not clearly state whether non-residents may use it.

R.I. Gen. Laws §11-47-60(a)(1) bans firearms on school grounds; a 2021 law (HB 5555, effective July 12, 2021) specifically extended this ban to concealed handgun license holders, eliminating the exception they previously had. Only an unloaded firearm secured in a locked container/rack in a vehicle is still allowed.

No Rhode Island-specific firearms-signage criminal statute is known to me, and I could not fetch the text of RI's general willful trespass statute (R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-44-26) to confirm its notice requirements in this session.

R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-58: control of firearms regarding ownership, possession, carrying, transfer, sale, and licensing "shall rest solely with the state," except as otherwise provided in that chapter.

No Rhode Island statute found prohibiting firearms at polling places. Based on MAP research; not independently verified against Rhode Island's own statute.

10-round limit. R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47.1-2, 11-47.1-3(a) (2022 law). First Circuit affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction in Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island (March 7, 2024). A cert. petition to SCOTUS is pending (raising Second Amendment and Takings Clause claims); the ban remains enforced pending resolution.

Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-8.3-1 et seq. (2018). Narrow petitioner class: a petition may be filed only by a law enforcement agency — no family/household member petition right.

Rhode Island is a flat, near-total ban across every NFA category, with no federal-registration recognition anywhere in the statute. R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-20 bans suppressor manufacture, sale, or possession outright — no NFA/ATF tax-stamp recognition, no hunting exception. § 11-47-8(b) bans possession of any sawed-off shotgun or rifle with no NFA exception. § 11-47-8(a) bans machine gun possession except under § 11-47-19 (AG-issued manufacturer's licenses only) — no individual-collector NFA exception. One of a small handful of states where civilian NFA-item possession is essentially prohibited regardless of a federal tax stamp.

No clean statute. Multiple secondary compilations (Giffords Law Center; U.S. LawShield) identify Rhode Island as a common-law duty-to-retreat jurisdiction: retreat is required in public if it can be done with complete safety, with the usual castle-doctrine exception for the person's own home. No duty at home; duty in public. Could not independently confirm the specific leading Rhode Island case via a fetchable primary source this session — this entry rests on secondary summaries only; verify against current Rhode Island self-defense pattern jury instructions before relying on it operationally.

R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-35 to 11-47-35.2: 'All sellers of firearms are required to conduct a background check on prospective purchasers,' unless the purchaser is a licensed retail dealer, a member of law enforcement, or a concealed-handgun licensee — language broad enough to cover private individual sellers. The specific scope of any family-transfer exception was not independently confirmed from the statute text.