The Department of Justice is looking to empower a decades-old law to give criminals an avenue to purchase guns.

The law allows the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to restore gun rights to some convicted criminals, but congressional spending bills beginning in 1992 prevent it from doing so, according to the New York Times. An interim rule set to be published Thursday in the Federal Register would grant the authority to the attorney general, who would then delegate the authority to the Justice Department.

The rule clarified that the DOJ still supports preventing “violent and dangerous people” from acquiring firearms but wants “an appropriate avenue” to restore gun rights to criminals who have proven they’re reformed.

The restoration would be on a case-by-case basis, with factors including “a combination of the nature of their past criminal activity and their subsequent and current law-abiding behavior.”

The move stems from a dispute within the DOJ about restoring gun rights to Hollywood actor and director Mel Gibson, a prominent supporter of Trump. Former DOJ pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer was fired after she refused to recommend Gibson get his gun rights restored.

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The rule is one of the second Trump administration’s first major moves on the Second Amendment. On Feb. 7, President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to “assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”

The New York Times reported that the DOJ has been locked in internal debate over the specifics of the avenue for the restoration of gun rights. Areas of contention include which crimes should automatically disqualify applicants and what time frame is needed before gun rights are restored.