The Maine House advanced two bills related to firearms Tuesday as lawmakers continue to consider legislation in the wake of the Lewiston mass shootings.

The House voted 74-72 to pass a ban on bump stocks, which are devices that modify firearms so they can shoot more bullets more quickly. On another close vote, the House approved a bill to require a 72-hour waiting period following a firearm purchase by a vote of 74-73.

The bills are two of several coming up for votes in the final days of the legislative session following the Oct. 25 mass shootings that killed 18 and wounded 13 at a bowling alley and a bar.

Supporters of the bump stock ban described mass shootings in other states where firearms were modified to shoot faster. Rep. Amy Kuhn (D-Falmouth) said a shooter in Las Vegas who killed 60 concertgoers in 2017 fired off 90 shots in 10 seconds.

By comparison, a semi-automatic rifle shoots about 24 shots in nine seconds, she said. Fifteen states have already banned the devices.

“This is a commonsense measure to improve public safety,” she said.

Yet opponents called the bill a “backdoor ban on assault weapons.”

“In reality, it would ban common firearms parts,” said Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan).

On the waiting period bill, Rep. Margaret Craven (D-Lewiston) said she’s been sponsoring similar legislation since 2007. She supports the three-day wait because a neighbor’s 18-year-old son took his own life with a gun the same day he purchased it, she said.

She said state statistics show that of the 178 firearms deaths in 2021, 158 were suicides.

“Gun violence is an epidemic,” she said. “Gun violence is a public health threat.”

Those opposed said it’s unnecessary to make hunters who have already passed a background check wait three days before they can pick up a firearm.

Rep. Chad Perkins (R-Dover Foxcroft) read a letter from the Maine Professional Guides Association in which the group expressed concerns about how the waiting period would affect people who travel from out-of-state to hunt in Maine.

Some visitors plan to buy a firearm when they arrive and others need to buy a new gun because of damage sustained while traveling, he said.

Rep. Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) said Mainers should have the right to defend themselves without waiting three days.

“I cannot tell a woman she has to wait 72-hours to feel safe,” she said.

And Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) said she knows some of those who were at the bowling alley the night Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, entered with a rifle and killed several people.

She said the victims she’s spoken to wished they had been armed that night and that they don’t support increased regulations.

“We have current laws on the books that should have stopped that man,” she said. “Not that gun, that man.”

Additional votes are expected on these measures, both of which passed the Senate last week.