Restraining Orders

The judge may consider several factors to decide if the person poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to himself/herself or others, such as:

• the person’s acts or threats of violence against himself/herself or others, even if they didn’t involve a gun;
• any recent incidents or patterns of violence within the past year;
• the person’s history of mental health issues or substance abuse;
• past violations of court orders, like restraining orders, no-contact orders, and protective orders;
• any past extreme risk protection orders;
• the person’s illegal or reckless use of a gun;
• threats involving a gun, like displaying it to intimidate someone or posting about it on social media;
• whether the person owns, has access to, or plans to get any firearms;
• the person’s criminal history;
• a history of physical violence, threats or attempts to use physical violence, stalking, or cruelty to animals; and
• whether the person recently got or tried to get a gun.¹

¹ R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-8.3-5(a), (b)