Rhode Island bars a crime of violence, not every felony
Rhode Island's firearm ban for a past conviction is in § 11-47-5. It bars anyone who has been "convicted in this state or elsewhere of a crime of violence." It does not list felonies in general.
The same section and the ones after it also bar a fugitive from justice; a person under a protective order issued after notice and a chance to be heard; a person under guardianship, treatment or confinement as mentally incompetent, or adjudicated or under treatment or confinement as a drug addict; and a non-citizen who entered or remains in the United States unlawfully. None of these depends on a conviction.
The firearm law has its own crime-of-violence list
"Crime of violence" means something different in the firearm law than in the expungement law. The firearm list, in § 11-47-2, is longer. It includes second-degree arson, mayhem, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault or battery involving grave bodily injury, and felony manufacture, sale or delivery of a controlled substance, or possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule I or II controlled substance. None of those is on the expungement law's crime-of-violence list in § 12-1.3-1.
So a conviction can be off one list and on the other. Which list a conviction is on is the first thing to check.
Domestic cases
Section 11-47-5 also bars anyone who pleaded nolo contendere to, or was convicted of, a domestic violence offense punishable as a felony, or one of four domestic misdemeanors: simple assault, cyberstalking or cyberharassment, violation of a protective order, and disorderly conduct involving force or a threatened dangerous weapon. It says those bars apply "unless and until that person's matter has been expunged," or a one-year filing or a one-year probation that is not a conviction has been completed.
A separate section, § 11-47-5.4, bars a person whose domestic case ended in a nolo contendere plea with a filing, probation or conviction, and orders the guns surrendered. That section does not mention expungement.
Federal law
Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime "punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year," and anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
For the first of those, federal law does not count a state offense the state classifies as a misdemeanor and that is punishable by two years or less. Under Rhode Island's general rule, § 11-1-2, a misdemeanor is punishable by no more than one year. What counts as a conviction is "determined in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held."
Federal law does not count a conviction "which has been expunged," unless the expungement "expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms." The rule for domestic violence misdemeanors is the same. The ATF's regulation repeats both.
What a Rhode Island expungement says
Section 12-1.3-4 releases a person whose record is expunged "from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the crime," with one exception: if the person is convicted of a later crime, the expunged conviction may be counted in sentencing. The section does not mention firearms.
Expungement itself is defined as sealing and keeping the records, and removing them from active files.
Weapons convictions
Every offense in the weapons chapter, chapter 47 of title 11, is on the list of "other prohibited offenses" added by the 2026 expungement law. Such a conviction closes the two-to-four-felony path to expungement.
The law behind this page
- Who may not have a firearm: R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-5(a)(1)–(4), (b); § 11-47-6; § 11-47-7.
- The firearm crime-of-violence list: § 11-47-2(6). The expungement crime-of-violence list: § 12-1.3-1(1).
- Domestic offenses and expungement: § 11-47-5(a)(3)–(5). Surrender after a domestic plea: § 11-47-5.4(a).
- Felony and misdemeanor defined: § 11-1-2.
- Effect of expungement: § 12-1.3-4(a). Expungement defined: § 12-1.3-1(2).
- Weapons offenses as other prohibited offenses: § 12-1.3-1(6)(xi), as enacted by P.L. 2026, ch. 171.
- Federal prohibitions: 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), (9). Expunged convictions: 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20), (a)(33)(B)(ii). ATF regulation: 27 C.F.R. § 478.11.
- State law read in the General Laws and the 2026 public laws, and federal law in the U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations, on October 13, 2026.
