R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-20.1
It shall be unlawful within this state for any person to import, manufacture, sell, purchase, or otherwise transfer any bullets which have steel inner cores or cores of equivalent hardness and truncated cones and which are designed for use in pistols as armor-piercing or metal-piercing bullets. Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three (3) years, or a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both. This section shall not apply to the purchase of those bullets by the Rhode Island state police, by any city or town police department of the state of Rhode Island, or by the department of environmental management for display as a part of a firearms training course under its auspices.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-47-20.1