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 DOJ.