CHEYENNE - A federal agency is balking at a Wyoming law that allows people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence to regain their right to own guns simply because it wants to take guns away from as many people as possible, a state lawyer told a federal judge Friday.

U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson heard arguments in a lawsuit Wyoming filed against the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The state has asked Johnson to rule that the ATF acted illegally when it threatened to disallow nearly 11,000 concealed weapons permits the state has issued to its citizens as a substitute for federal background checks for firearms purchases.

Congress in 1996 expanded the ban that prohibits convicted felons from owning guns to include anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.

A Wyoming law enacted in 2004 allows people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges to petition in court to get their first convictions expunged. The ATF has warned Wyoming that it would stop honoring state weapon permits for gun purchases if Wyoming continues to use its law.

Wyoming's lawsuit has attracted national attention, with groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners Foundation in Washington supporting the state's position.

The ATF says the problem with the state law is that it doesn't really expunge a conviction because it specifies the record of the first conviction remains on the state books for purposes of enhancing penalties for any subsequent crime.

"The ordinary meaning of expungement and set-aside is to render a conviction as if it doesn't exist. That's not what this does," Alexander K. Haas, lawyer for the ATF, told Johnson.

And Haas said he doesn't expect the Wyoming Legislature would want to change the state law to allow people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence to have their records entirely expunged because of the public safety concerns.

Haas said the ATF hasn't sought to prevent Wyoming from managing its own laws. Rather, Haas said the federal agency gave the state a choice: If the state wanted to adopt a law that fails to meet the federal standard, it wouldn't be entitled to the federal benefit of having its citizens' concealed weapons permits accepted for instant gun purchases.

"If they want to be in the federal program, they can do certain things to do that," Haas said. "If they don't, they don't have to."

However, Levi Martin, assistant Wyoming attorney general, told Johnson that ATF's goal is "to remove firearms from the hands of as many people as it could."

Martin said the ATF has tried to take it upon itself to determine whether state law is up to standards. In doing so, he said, the federal agency was trying improperly to take over the duties of the court system.

"We have the ATF saying, 'Nope, your statute doesn't expunge under federal law,"' Martin said. "We say it does."

After the lawyers' arguments, Johnson said he would issue a ruling later. His comments from the bench gave little indication which way he might lean.

At the beginning of the hearing, Johnson said he expects that people who have been convicted of domestic violence are interested in having their right to carry deadly weapons restored. "Then maybe next time they'll have a weapon available to them, I guess," he said.

But at the end of the hearing, Johnson also questioned Haas, the ATF lawyer from Washington, whether he was from the West. When Haas answered that he was not, the judge told him, "We have a number of people out here who live by subsistence hunting."