The kind of high-powered .50-calibre rifle a Canadian sniper reportedly used to kill an ISIS target in Iraq with a record-breaking shot can be bought in Canada with no legal conditions — other than the routine class of gun licence required to purchase a .22 for shooting gophers on a farm or a rifle for hunting deer.

After the Canadian military confirmed last week that a special forces sniper broke a world combat record with a 3.5-kilometre shot, firearms enthusiasts across Canada cheered — but gun control advocates expressed renewed concerns about legislative rollbacks of federal gun control by the Harper government.

The Canadian sniper’s rifle — a McMillan TAC-50 related by design to First World War Browning automatic weaponry — is classified as a ‘non-restricted’ firearm in Canada. That means it’s not subject to laws that govern acquisition and use of restricted firearms, such as tactical semi-automatic rifles or handguns that can only be used for sport shooting at licensed target ranges — let alone the even tougher controls for firearms that have been classified as ‘prohibited’.

When the former Conservative government dismantled the federal long gun registry in 2012, the only way to keep track of acquisition and ownership of .50-calibre rifles like the TAC-50, which can pierce light armour, vanished with it.

Although a federal registry for restricted long guns, handguns and prohibited firearms continues, no accessible records are explicitly required for sale and ownership of non-restricted long guns — even .50-calibre rifles that fall within the required standards for minimum barrel length and maximum ammunition clip capacity.

Canadian Forces sources were cited in a Globe and Mail report last week about the sniper attack against ISIS, which the report said took place in May. The NDP claimed the shooting was an act of combat, which the government says is prohibited for Canadian special forces advising and assisting Iraqi forces, while the Canadian Forces said the shooting fell within rules of engagement that allow Canadian troops to use force in defence of themselves or allies in the battle against ISIS.

The target was an ISIS tactical unit in Mosul, where Iraqi forces, supported by U.S. led airstrikes and other special forces, are trying to drive out ISIS holdouts.

A day after the Globe and Mail published the sniper story, an online firearms retail firm based in Maple Ridge, B.C., posted a photograph of a McMillan TAC-50 the site said was in stock and for sale at a price of $14,999. The ad displayed the rifle’s classification — “NON Restricted”.

A motto on the firearms retail site, Wanstalls Online, borrows a quote from American revolutionary-era statesman Benjamin Franklin that is popular with U.S. firearm rights activists: “Any Society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

The site says the firm donates a “small portion” of its proceeds to the National Firearms Association and the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, two of Canada’s most prominent gun lobbies.

The National Firearms Association was at the centre of a political controversy following the Conservative leadership election last month, when the party disclosed its national membership data had been provided to the firearm lobby and advocacy organization, apparently in an attempt by one of the candidates to drum up support among gun owners.

On the Gun Owners of Canada site last Friday, several forum posters commented on the Canadian TAC-50 sniper shot, the third and latest record shot for Canadian soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“By a LONG margin we take the lead again boys,” said one of the posts.

“Holy [expletive],” said another.

Another referred to the Wanstalls sales post for the TAC-50, noting it was on sale for $795 below its regular price.

Prior to the end of the long gun registry in 2012, any firearm vendor selling a non-restricted firearm such as a .50-calibre rifle would have been required to record the buyer’s name and address, confirm the buyer had a valid firearm acquisition licence and report the details to the national firearms registry managed by the RCMP.

The Conservative bill that compelled the RCMP to destroy the long gun registry records also amended Firearms Act sections that cover buying and selling non-restricted long guns.

The amendments eliminated an explicit requirement for document production and another requirement for the vendor to report the sale to a provincial or territorial chief firearms officer for authorization and registration.

The new wording states only that the transaction can go through if the buyer has a licence to acquire and possess the firearm and that the vendor “has no reason to believe” the buyer is not authorized to buy and possess that class of firearm, a clause the Conservatives retained from the original registry legislation.

The section does not specifically state the buyer must produce a licence before the sale, as the original version of the registry law required. A National Firearms Association spokesman recently insisted no firearm vendors would sell a firearm without first requiring proof of a licence.

“If it’s not verified, and the police do stings on this all the time at licensed firearms businesses … if you do not, that’s an offence because you’re delivered your firearm to someone who did not present a valid firearms licence,” said Blair Hagen, a firearm retailer in Vancouver who is executive vice president of the NFA.

“I cannot transfer any firearms to someone who does not have a valid firearms licence, and you telling me that you do have a valid firearms licence is not proof enough for me to do that.”

Hagen said the Conservatives’ removal of a specific requirement for vendors, or anyone who transfers firearms to someone else, was intended to eliminate potential criminal charges in cases where guns are transferred between family members or — he said by way of an example — in rural Indigenous communities.

“If you’re my uncle or father or something like that and you say, ‘Boy, I’d sure like to get my .30-.30 (a high-powered hunting rifle) back, I’ll buy it back for a dollar,’ and I’d say, ‘Well, I know Dad, I know you’ve got a firearms licence, we talk every day, but I’m not necessarily going to force you to produce the firearms licence to verify that fact,’” Hagen said.

“If firearms are transferred within a family or, in the case of Indian bands, within that band, everybody knows everybody else, everybody knows their status, that could potentially be an offence. It’s to avoid criminalizing people in purchases or arrangements like that.”

Regulations the government passed under the 2012 legislation stipulate firearm retailers cannot be compelled to collect information about the transfer, or sale, of a non-restricted firearm — and if they kept information on the transaction or a record of it, they cannot keep the record in a form that combines information identifying a buyer with information identifying an individual firearm.

Under the new law, if a firearm retailer voluntarily contacts the RCMP secretariat that administers the remaining registry for all handguns, and restricted or prohibited handguns and long guns, to verify a licence, the head registrar or any designated official is prohibited from retaining any record of the request for licence confirmation.

Firearm control advocate Wendy Cukier said Canada could have prohibited .50-calibre rifles when the long-gun registry and new controls were being established in 1995, but the calibre of a rifle bullet was not included in a list of criteria that determined whether a firearm would be restricted or even prohibited, except for handguns.

“It’s been a loophole that was flagged a few years ago,” Cukier said, referring to California’s decision to prohibit .50 calibre rifles for citizen use in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaida terrorist attacks in the U.S. — out of concerns the guns could also be used by terrorists.