Rhode Island Pepper Spray and Stun Gun Laws (2026)

Rhode Island treats pepper spray and stun guns as opposites, with a felony sitting on each side. Pepper spray carry is affirmatively authorized by its own statute for anyone 18 or older, but spraying a police officer or other listed official with it is a separate felony, and merely having it available while committing a different violent crime triggers its own mandatory prison term. A stun gun sits on the other end: it is named in Rhode Island's weapons-prohibition statute as a banned item, that statute has not been amended, and a 2022 federal ruling permanently enjoined the Attorney General and the State Police Superintendent from enforcing that ban as to stun guns, while the statute's separate ban on selling a stun gun to a minor without parental authorization stands untouched.

Jurisdiction scope: This page covers Rhode Island state law only, principally R.I. Gen. Laws Sections 11-5-5, 11-47-3, 11-47-21, 11-47-26, 11-47-42, 11-47-43, 11-47-57, 11-47-58, 11-47-60, 28-10-7, and 28-10-8. It does not cover Rhode Island's separate firearms-licensing statutes except where Section 11-47-58's preemption clause touches them.

Is pepper spray legal to carry in Rhode Island?

Yes, and Rhode Island goes further than most states by authorizing it directly, but that authorization has a real limit against a specific class of victim. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-47-57, titled "'Mace' or similar substances," states: "Any person eighteen (18) years of age or over may carry on his or her person and use, unless otherwise prohibited by law, any non-lethal noxious substance or liquid for his or her protection or the protection of others; however, the use of any non-lethal noxious substance or liquid for any other purpose shall be punishable by a fine of not more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00)." That is an affirmative authorization, not a mere absence of a ban, subject to two limits written into the statute itself: the carrier must be 18 or older, and using the substance for a purpose other than protecting oneself or another person is a violation, punishable by a fine of up to $25.

The "unless otherwise prohibited by law" clause in Section 11-47-57 is not a formality. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-47-3, "Carrying dangerous weapons or substances when committing crime of violence," makes it a separate crime to commit or attempt a "crime of violence" while "armed with or having available any firearm, explosive substance, noxious liquid, gas or substance, or acid." "Crime of violence" is defined at Section 11-47-2(6) to include offenses such as robbery, burglary, breaking and entering, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault or battery involving grave bodily injury. A first conviction under Section 11-47-3 carries a mandatory three to ten years in prison, a second conviction ten to twenty years, and a third or subsequent conviction fifteen years to life, and the statute forecloses suspension or deferment of sentence and probation for any of those terms. Because pepper spray is a "noxious liquid, gas or substance," merely having a canister available while committing or attempting one of those offenses is enough to trigger this mandatory sentence; the spray does not need to be used. Separately, Section 11-47-21 makes it a chapter violation to possess or carry "any noxious liquid, gas, or substance" with intent to use it unlawfully against the person or property of another, punishable under Section 11-47-26 by a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment for not more than five years, or both; Section 11-47-21 was amended twice in the 2025 session, most recently effective June 24, 2025.

R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-5-5, "Assault of police officers and other officials," is one Rhode Island statute that names pepper spray or Mace by product name in its operative text, and it reaches far beyond a $25 fine. It makes it a felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to $1,500, or both, to make an assault or battery by "knowingly and willfully ... spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly used as a personal defense weapon, including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum product or like products," causing bodily injury to a long list of officers and officials while they are performing their duties, including a police officer, firefighter, deputy sheriff, judge of the supreme, superior, family, district, traffic tribunal, or municipal court, probation or parole officer, and dozens of other named categories. Section 11-47-57's general authorization to carry and use pepper spray for protection does not extend to using it offensively against someone on that list.

A separate statute, R.I. Gen. Laws Section 28-10-7, makes it "unlawful for any person to use or to cause to be used during the progress of labor strikes or lockouts of any type, any tear gas, brombenzylcyanide, or any other gas that would affect the respiratory organs." That provision is scoped to labor-dispute contexts specifically; it does not restrict Section 11-47-57's general self-defense authorization outside that setting. Section 28-10-8 sets the penalty for a Section 28-10-7 violation: a civil penalty of $500 "for each and every offense," and subsection (b) makes each individual person the gas affects a separate offense, so the fine multiplies with the number of people gassed.

Rhode Island's statutes do not set a capacity or formula cap or a licensed-dealer requirement for pepper spray beyond the age-and-purpose conditions written into Section 11-47-57 itself.

Are stun guns legal to carry in Rhode Island?

The statute's plain text still says no, but a federal court has permanently enjoined the Attorney General and the State Police Superintendent from enforcing that part of the text, and a separate, narrower ban on selling a stun gun to a minor stands untouched. R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-47-42(a)(1) provides: "No person shall carry or possess or attempt to use against another any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slingshot, billy, sandclub, sandbag, metal knuckles, slap glove, bludgeon, stun-gun, or the so called 'Kung-Fu' weapons." Subsection (a)(3) separately bars wearing or carrying any of those same instruments concealed on the person, along with "any razor, or knife of any description having a blade of more than three (3) inches in length ..., or other weapon of like kind or description," an open-ended clause rather than a closed list. That text has not been amended since P.L. 2012, ch. 292, Section 1, according to the statute's own amendment history, and it remains the operative, unrepealed text of the Rhode Island General Laws today.

In O'Neil v. Neronha, No. 1:19-cv-00612 (D.R.I.), the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs and denied summary judgment for the defendants, ruling: "The prohibition against the possession and use of stun guns set forth in Section 11-47-42(a) is an unconstitutional restriction of the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment in light of Heller. ... Defendants are PERMANENTLY ENJOINED from enforcing Section 11-47-42(a) as related to stun guns." Section 11-47-42(a) carries no age term of its own; the only age rule in the section is subsection (b)'s sale ban, discussed next. District Judge William E. Smith signed that order on March 15, 2022. That injunction runs against the named defendants in their official capacities, the Rhode Island Attorney General and the State Police Superintendent, and stops enforcement of Section 11-47-42(a)'s stun-gun clause specifically. It does not rewrite or repeal the statute, and the General Assembly has not amended Section 11-47-42 or otherwise re-codified a stun-gun exception since 2022.

The injunction does not touch Section 11-47-42(b), a separate provision naming "stungun" among items a person may not sell "to a person under eighteen (18) years of age, without the written authorization of the minor's parent or legal guardian." A violation of subsection (b) is punished by "a fine of not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) nor more than three thousand dollars ($3,000), or by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than five (5) years, or both, and the weapons so found shall be confiscated." The O'Neil order enjoins enforcement of "Section 11-47-42(a) as related to stun guns" only, so the under-18 sale ban in subsection (b) is unaffected by the ruling and remains fully enforceable.

Rhode Island's separate exemption, Section 11-47-43, lifts Section 11-47-42 "so far as [it] forbid[s] the possession" of the listed items, not carrying them, for collectors and others who possess them, including curio, educational, professional, or scientific collectors, along with certain officers carrying a billy in the course of their duties, so long as the person does not intend to use the item unlawfully. That exemption is not a closed list: its text reads "curios or for educational, professional, scientific, or any other lawful purpose," so it ends in a residual "or any other lawful purpose" clause rather than stopping at "scientific." Whether ordinary self-defense possession of a stun gun falls within that residual clause is not resolved by the statute's own words. A general violation of Section 11-47-42(a) is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to one year of imprisonment; the penalty rises to $1,000-$3,000 or one to five years for a person who violates the subsection "while he or she is incarcerated within the confines of the adult correctional institutions," an enhancement tied to the violator's status as an inmate rather than to where the violation takes place. Both penalty paragraphs require that "the weapon so found shall be confiscated."

Where you can't carry either device

R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-47-60 makes it unlawful to "have in his or her possession any firearm or other weapons" on the property of a public or private elementary or secondary school, in a building, stadium, or structure used for a school-sponsored activity, or while riding school-provided transportation, with exceptions for a person exempt under Section 11-47-9, a "peace officer" as defined in Section 12-7-21, a retired law enforcement officer permitted under Section 11-47-18(b) or federal law, a contracted school-security provider, and specified sanctioned activities such as firearm-safety courses, ROTC programs, and interscholastic marksmanship events. A violation is punishable by one to five years of imprisonment or a fine of $500 to $5,000, and a juvenile adjudicated delinquent under the section loses, or has delayed, the right to a driver's license for up to six months, on top of whatever other penalty the family court imposes. The section is titled around firearms and its exceptions are built for firearms, but its operative text reaches "other weapons" without defining that term inside the section itself, so whether it sweeps in pepper spray, which Section 11-47-57 otherwise authorizes, or a stun gun, which Section 11-47-42 names but currently cannot be enforced against under the O'Neil injunction, is not resolved by Section 11-47-60's own words. Section 11-47-60(c) states that the section does not apply to colleges, universities, or junior colleges, and subsection (d) separately exempts an unloaded firearm kept in a locked container in a vehicle, a carve-out written for firearms specifically that does not extend to a spray or a stun gun.

Local ordinances and state preemption

R.I. Gen. Laws Section 11-47-58 states: "The control of firearms, ammunition, or their component parts regarding their ownership, possession, transportation, carrying, transfer, sale, purchase, purchase delay, licensing, registration, and taxation shall rest solely with the state, except as otherwise provided in this chapter." That preemption clause is scoped to firearms, ammunition, and their component parts; it does not mention mace, pepper spray, or stun guns. A Rhode Island city or town is therefore not state-blocked from adopting its own ordinance regulating pepper spray or stun guns, unlike the firearms Section 11-47-58 reserves to the state.

Federal law: what it does and does not reach

No federal statute regulates a civilian's purchase or possession of pepper spray or a stun gun. Federal law matters in three places.

Federal buildings. Under 18 U.S.C. § 930(a), whoever knowingly possesses or causes to be present "a firearm or other dangerous weapon in a Federal facility (other than a Federal court facility)" faces a fine, imprisonment of up to 1 year, or both. Subsection (e) sets up to 2 years for a federal court facility, and subsection (b) up to 5 years where the weapon is intended to be used in a crime. Section 930(g)(2) defines the term:

The term "dangerous weapon" means a weapon, device, instrument, material, or substance, animate or inanimate, that is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2½ inches in length.

The definition names neither device. Whether a particular spray or stun gun is "readily capable of" causing serious bodily injury is a question of fact the statute does not answer. Subsection (d)(3) exempts "the lawful carrying of firearms or other dangerous weapons in a Federal facility incident to hunting or other lawful purposes," and subsection (h) requires notice of the ban to be posted at each public entrance. A "Federal facility" is "a building or part thereof owned or leased by the Federal Government, where Federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties."

Air travel. The Transportation Security Administration's screening rules, which are agency policy rather than statute, bar both devices from carry-on bags. One 4 fl. oz. (118 ml) container of mace or pepper spray is permitted in checked baggage if it has a safety mechanism to prevent accidental discharge, and sprays containing more than 2 percent by mass of tear gas (CS or CN) are prohibited in checked baggage. Tasers, stun guns and other electro-shock weapons may travel in checked baggage only if transported so the device cannot discharge accidentally. Airlines may set stricter rules.

National parks. National Park Service regulations prohibit possessing, carrying or using a "weapon" in a park area except as the regulations provide (36 CFR 2.4(b)(1)). 36 CFR 1.4 defines "weapon" to include an "irritant gas device" and any "weapon the possession of which is prohibited under the laws of the State in which the park area or portion thereof is located."

Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about Rhode Island's pepper spray and stun gun laws as of September 2026. It is not legal advice. Consult a lawyer licensed in Rhode Island for advice about a specific situation.

For a state-by-state comparison, see pepper spray and stun gun laws by state. Rhode Island's self-defense statutes are covered separately on the Rhode Island self-defense laws page.

Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-09-22. Last updated: 2026-09-22.