The owner and management company of a Rockland apartment complex have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a tenant who claims his rights were violated when he was asked to turn over his handgun or face eviction.

Attorneys for Park Place Associates and Stanford Management LLC filed the response Tuesday in Knox County Superior Court disputing Harvey Lembo’s allegations in a lawsuit filed last month.

The judge will decide in the coming week whether the case should proceed.

The lawsuit stems from an incident in which Lembo, a 67-year-old retiree who uses a wheelchair, purchased a firearm after his apartment was broken into several times. On Sept. 1, the day after Lembo bought the gun, an intruder tried to break in. Lembo shot and wounded the intruder, Christopher Wildhaber, 46, who told Lembo he was there to steal prescription medications.

Lembo was not charged because police determined he acted in self-defense, but the owner of the apartment complex told the tenant he would be evicted unless he relinquished any firearms because it violated complex rules.

Lembo later filed a lawsuit alleging that asking him to do so left him defenseless.

He is represented in the suit by Patrick Strawbridge, but the National Rifle Association also has taken an active interest in his case. David Thompson, a Washington, D.C.m attorney who has represented the NRA in the past, is assisting Strawbridge in the case.

“Mr. Lembo’s right to keep and bear arms, including for the purpose of self-defense, is secured and protected from interference by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants have intentionally interfered or attempted to interfere with Mr. Lembo’s exercise and enjoyment of the right to keep and bear arms by the threat of physical force or violence against a person.”

Lembo is seeking to keep a firearm at his apartment but he also has asked for damages.

J. William Druary and James Bowie, the attorneys representing the property owner and management company, wrote in their response that Lembo knew that keeping guns in his apartments was a violation of rules that he agreed to as a tenant.

The attorneys also claimed that Lembo was never actually evicted. The property owners said only that they would initiate eviction proceedings if Lembo failed to comply.