AUGUSTA (AP) — The Maine Legislature is poised to pass a bill that would prohibit landlords who accept subsidized housing vouchers from barring tenants who keep guns.

The House on Wednesday voted 92 to 54 to support the bill, which the Senate had passed last week. The bill was submitted after a property manager told a Rockland man who had shot an intruder that he couldn’t live in his apartment anymore with a gun.

Opponents argued that the bill violates the property rights of landlords. Rep. Rep. Lori Fowle, a Vassalboro Democrat, called the bill a “big reach for government.”

Rep. Joel Stetkis, a Canaan Republican, said the U.S. Constitution gives everyone, even the “poor and disabled,” the right to defend themselves. The bill faces additional votes in the House and Senate.



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