There was an interesting story in the CBC about why the Liberals picked 2013 as the baseline year to compare gun related crime & deaths.

That’s because 2013 saw Canada’s lowest rate of criminal homicides in 50 years, and the lowest rate of fatal shootings ever recorded by Statistics Canada.

In 2013, Canadians killed each other at the lowest rate since 1966 — 30 per cent below the average of the previous three decades. Statistics Canada’s homicide report for 2013 clearly identifies it as a record-breaking year.

“To be worth much, a report based on sampling must use a representative sample,” wrote Huff.

But 2013 does not represent any kind of Canadian norm. Choosing it as a baseline could be seen as an example of what statisticians call “selection bias.”

Source: CBC

Get out of here, politicians and governments cherry pick numbers that suit their purposes?  I don’t have any problem with reasonable control of anything but the key word is reasonable and the Liberal bill C71 will do nothing to address crime.