1927 R.I. Pub. Laws 256, ch. 1052, §§ 1, 3
| dc.coverage.spatial | Rhode Island | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-10-24T14:13:43Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-11-12T17:07:20Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-03-17T13:17:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1927 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Prohibited a person who has previously been convicted of a violent crime from owning, carrying, or possessing any firearm (including machine gun or pistol). | |
| dc.description.lawtext | SECTION 1. When used in this act the following words and phrases shall be construed as follows: "Pistol" shall include any pistol or revolver, and any shot gun, rifle or similar weapon with overall length less than twenty-six inches, but shall not include any pistol without a magazine or any pistol or revolver designed for the use of blank cartridges only. "Machine gun" shall include any weapon which shoots automatically and any weapon which shoots more than twelve shots semi-automatically without reloading. "Firearm" shall include any machine gun or pistol. "Person" shall include firm, association or corporation. "Licensing authorities" shall mean the board of police commissioners of a city or town where such board has been instituted, the chief of police or superintendent of police of other cities and towns having a regular organized police force, and in towns where there is no chief of police or superintendent of police it shall mean the town clerk who may issue licenses upon the recommendation of the town sergeant; "Crime of violence" shall mean and include any of the following crimes or an attempt to commit any of the same, viz.: murder, manslaughter, rape, mayhem, assault or battery involving grave bodily injury, robbery, burglary, and breaking and entering. "Sell" shall include let or hire, give, lend and transfer, and the word "purchase" shall include hire, accept and borrow, and the expression "purchasing" shall be construed accordingly." SEC. 2. If any person shall commit or attempt to commit a crime of violence when armed with or having available any firearm, he may in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence be punished as provided in this act. In the trial of a person for committing or attempting to commit a crime of violence the fact that he was armed with or had available a pistol without license to carry the same, or was armed with or had available a machine gun, shall be prima facie evidence of his intention to commit said crime of violence. SEC. 3. No person who has been convicted in this state or elsewhere of a crime of violence shall purchase, own, carry or have in his possession or under his control any firearm. SEC. 4. No person shall, without a license therefor, issued as provided in section six hereof, carry a pistol in any vehicle or concealed on or about his person, except in his dwelling house or place of business or on land possessed by him, and no person shall manufacture, sell, purchase or possess a machine gun except as otherwise provided in this act. SEC. 5. The provisions of section four shall not apply to sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, the superintendent and members of the state police, prison or jail wardens or their deputies, members of the city or town police force or other duly appointed law enforcement officers, nor to members of the army, navy or marine corps of the United States, or of the national guard, or of organizations by law authorized to purchase or receive firearms from the United States or this state, nor to officers or employees of the United States authorized by law to carry a concealed firearm, nor to duly authorized military organizations when on duty, nor to the members thereof when at or going to or from their customary places of assembly, nor to the regular and ordinary transportation of pistols as merchandise, nor to any person while carrying a pistol unloaded in a wrapper from the place of purchase to his home or place of business, or to a place of repair or back to his home or place of business, or in moving goods from one place or abode or business to another. Sec. 6. The licensing authorities of any city or town shall upon application of any person having a bona fide residence or place of business within such city or town, or of any person having a bona fide residence or place of business within the United States and a license to carry a pistol concealed upon his person issued by the authorities of any other state or subdivision of the United States, issue a license to such person to carry concealed upon his person a pistol within this state for not more than one year from date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to his person or property and has any other proper reason for carrying a pistol, and that he is a suitable person to be so licensed. The license shall be in triplicate, in form to be prescribed by the attorney-general and shall bear the fingerprint, name, address, description and signature of the licensee and the reason given for desiring a license. The original thereof shall be delivered to the licensee, the duplicate shall within seven days be sent to the attorney-general and the triplicate shall be preserved for six years by the licensing authorities issuing said license. A fee of two dollars may be charged and shall be paid for each license, to the officer issuing the same. Before issuing any such permit the applicant for the same shall be required to give bond to the city or town treasurer in the penal sum of three hundred dollars, with surety satisfactory to the authority issuing such permit, to keep the peace and be of good behavior. Every such permit shall be valid for one year from the date when issued unless sooner revoked. The fee charged for the issuing of such license or permit shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of section thirty-three of chapter 401 of the general laws. Sec. 7. The attorney-general may issue a permit to any banking institution doing business in this state or to any public carrier who is engaged in the business of transporting mail, money, securities or other valuables, to possess and use machine guns under such regulations as the attorney-general may prescribe. Sec. 8. It shall be unlawful within this state to manufacture, sell, purchase or possess except for military or police purposes, any muffler, silencer or device for deadening or muffling the sound of a firearm when discharged. Sec. 9. Any person, except a member of the state police, the sheriff or his deputies, or a member of the police force of any city or town, or a member of the army, navy, or marine corps of the United States, or of the national guard or organized reserves when on duty, who possesses, or carries on or about his person or in a vehicle, a bomb or bomb shell, except for blasting or other commercial use, or who, with intent to use the same unlawfully against the person or property of another, possesses or carries any explosive substance, or any noxious liquid, gas or substance, shall be guilty of a violation of this act and punished as hereinafter provided. Sec. 10. No property right shall exist in any firearm unlawfully possessed, carried or used, and all such firearms are hereby declared to be nuisances and forfeited to the state. When such forfeited firearms shall be taken from any person, they shall be surrendered to the chief or superintendent of police in the city or town in which they are taken, or to the town sergeant of such town where there is no chief of police or superintendent. The officer to whom they are surrendered shall, except upon a certificate of a justice of the superior court or the attorney-general that the non-destruction thereof is necessary or proper to the ends of justice, proceed to destroy all such firearms at stated intervals of not more than one year. Provided, however, that if any such firearm shall be found to be the property of an innocent owner, it shall be returned to such owner if and when no longer needed for purposes of evidence. Sec. 11. No person shall in purchasing or otherwise securing delivery of a pistol or in applying for a license to carry the same, give false information or offer false evidence of his identity. Sec. 12. No person shall change, alter, remove, or obliterate the name of the maker, model, manufacturer's number, or other mark of identification on any firearm. Possession of any firearm upon which any such mark shall have been changed, altered, removed, or obliterated, shall be prima facie evidence that the possessor has changed, altered, removed or obliterated the same. Sec. 13. This act shall not apply to antique firearms unsuitable for use nor to collections of firearms as curios, souvenirs, or for educational, scientific or any similar purposes without intent to use such firearms. Sec. 14. Any violation of any provision of this act shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Sec. 15. No negative allegation of any kind need be averred or proved in any complaint under this act and the carrying or use of any firearm contrary to the provisions of this act shall be evidence that the possession, carrying or use of any such firearm is unlawful, but the respondent in any such case may show any fact that would render the possession, or use, or carrying of such firearm lawful. Sec. 16. Every officer authorized to make an arrest may without complaint and warrant arrest any person who has in his possession any firearm whenever such officer has reasonable ground to suspect that such person possesses or is using or is carrying such firearm contrary to law. Any person so arrested may be detained a reasonable time, not exceeding twenty-four hours, for the purpose of making an investigation concerning such person, but no person so arrested shall be detained longer than twenty-four hours without complaint being made against him before some proper court or justice. If the officer making the arrest shall at any time within the said twenty-four hours satisfy himself that there is no ground for making a criminal complaint against such person, he shall thereupon be discharged from custody. Sec. 17. In the case of the conviction under this act of a person who is not a citizen of the United States, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the court in which such conviction is secured to certify the fact of such conviction to the proper officer of the United States government having supervision of the deportation of aliens. Sec. 18. The provisions and penalties prescribed in this act shall take the place of the provisions and penalties of sections thirty-two to thirty-five inclusive of chapter 401 of the general laws in so far as such provisions and penalties of said sections of said chapter 401 relate to the possession and carrying of air guns, pistols or firearms of any description, and upon the passage of this act said provisions and penalties of such sections in so far as they relate to air guns, pistols and firearms shall be repealed. Sec. 19. No offense committed, or forfeiture incurred, under any law hereby amended and before the time when this act goes into effect, and no suit, prosecution or indictment pending at the time this act goes into effect, for any offence committed or for the recovery of any fine or penalty or forfeiture incurred under any law hereby amended, shall be affected by the passage of this act, but, proceedings relating to the same shall be taken and continued as if this act had not been passed. Sec. 20. This act shall take effect upon its passage and may be cited as the Firearms Act. | |
| dc.description.summary | The act heavily regulates firearms: people convicted of violent crimes are barred from possessing firearms, concealed pistols generally require a license, and machine guns and silencers are largely prohibited except for specified official uses. It also allows seizure/forfeiture of illegally possessed firearms, permits arrest for suspected unlawful possession, and imposes penalties of up to $1,000, five years in prison, or both for violations. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5213 | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedbyGoogle | https://www.google.com/books/edition/Public_Laws_of_the_State_of_Rhode_Island/vK9KAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 | |
| dc.subject | POSSESSION - DANGEROUS PERSONS | |
| dc.subject | COMMITTING CRIME W/ WEAPON | |
| dc.subject | DEFINITIONS | |
| dc.subject | DEFACED FIREARMS | |
| dc.subject | MACHINE GUN RESTRICTION | |
| dc.subject | CARRY::CARRY - CONCEALED | |
| dc.title | 1927 R.I. Pub. Laws 256, ch. 1052, §§ 1, 3 |