As an American, there are a few words I don’t want anyone trying to use to describe their actions toward me. One of the biggest is “control.” As a free man, I don’t want anyone controlling me, at least not without my consent. For example, if I exchange my efforts for money, then that money does come with some expectation of my employer having some control over what I do.

However, it’s not complete control because I can quit.

Yet when people talk about governments having “control,” I get more than a little nervous. Especially on topics like guns. However, a Florida news report on a study uses that exact word when attacking the state on issues like preemption.

Local governments ability to control their own communities is under attack.

That’s the message from a new report published by a government watchdog group in the state capitol, suggesting state lawmakers have become increasingly aggressive when it comes to preempting local governments on issues from plastic straws to gun control.

Over the past three years, state lawmakers have proposed 119 bills that would preempt local governments in various ways.

Sixteen have already been filed for the 2020 session.

“It shows you the concerted effort on a yearly basis to limit the power of local governments,” said Ben Wilcox with Integrity Florida.

Yet note that first sentence. “[C]ontrol their own communities.”

Wow.

Now, I’ve outlined time and time again why preemption of gun control makes sense. After all, the last thing we need are people who travel through the state being arrested on a gun charge when just a matter of a few feet away, what they’re doing is perfectly legal. The courts have found that ignorance of the law is no defense for breaking it, so preemption makes it so people only need to learn one set of gun laws.

That’s not overly difficult to understand.

Local ordinances are necessary for a number of issues, but the gun debate sure as hell isn’t one of them.

The truth is, states are having to step up because local communities are trying to control their residents, thus depriving them of their rights to choose.

The organization in question, however, isn’t so much of a governmental watchdog as a leftist watchdog group. After all, they’re taking issue with preemption by claiming it negates the ability for local governments to make decisions of themselves, but in 2018 this same organization attacked charter schools.

Charter schools are created by local school boards and parents–something far more local than the legislature–and opens up the opportunity for innovation. Further, if they don’t fulfill their mission, they’re a lot easy to shut down.

Yet leftists hate them, and Integrity Florida attacked them. Probably because charter schools also aren’t required to adhere to state-approved curriculums and can teach in ways that don’t necessarily indoctrinate students to left-leaning ideologies.

In other words, “Integrity” isn’t really part of Integrity Florida’s mission. Instead, they’re a mouthpiece of anti-gun leftists who are using the term to hide their own involvement and pretend this is a non-partisan effort. After all, what side is most likely to decry the lack of “diversity” in President Trump’s judicial nominees?

At the end of the day, though, Integrity Florida is really more interested in control than rights, and that’s a huge problem for millions of people in Florida, as it should be.