Rhode Island does not:
- Require a license for the sale of ammunition;
- Ensure that sellers of ammunition maintain records of the purchasers;
- Prohibit persons who are ineligible to possess firearms under state law from possessing ammunition, although the federal ammunition purchaser prohibitions apply.
Licensing
As of December 31, 2022, Rhode Island requires a person to have a valid handgun safety certificate or Rhode Island hunter education course card to purchase ammunition.1
Minimum Age to Purchase/Possess Ammunition
Rhode Island generally prohibits the sale of ammunition to any person under 21 years of age.2 The state also prohibits any person from selling, transferring, giving, conveying or causing to be sold, transferred, given or conveyed, any firearm or ammunition to any person under age 18, when the person knows or has reason to know that the recipient is under age 18.3
Persons under age 18 are also prohibited from possessing or using ammunition.4
Regulation of Unreasonably Dangerous Ammunition
Rhode Island prohibits the importation, manufacture, sale or other transfer or purchase of “armor-piercing bullets,” which have steel inner cores or cores of equivalent hardness and truncated cones and are designed for use in pistols as armor-piercing or metal-piercing bullets.5 The federal prohibition on certain kinds of armor-piercing ammunition also applies.
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