in the early 80's about the same time the fmdac formed
saying We need to ask things changed for the worse
Wow Jeff, this is interesting coming from a MODERATOR, no less
I remember those times (late '70s/early '80s) very well. And actually, even prior to the FMDAC, there was already stories circulating (ie.: stories of bootings or legal hassles, pleas for solidarities, and admonishments for us hobbyists to "know the laws", etc...) even before the FMDAC. The FMDAC was started in about 1984 or so I think. But even just prior to that, in some treasure mag's (d/t there was no internet at the time), there had already been some editorials, etc... in treasure mag's, citing about laws coming about, or an unfortunate md'r who was ticketed, blah blah blah. Still though, I don't remember much impact, or concern. I suppose any of us who read of such things, would have just subconsciously thought "oh that's from someplace far away and doesn't concern me", or "no one cares about md'ing where I'm at, it's not an issue here", etc...
But your right: When the FMDAC mailers started making the rounds to subscriber clubs, then for the first time, you had a periodical, and an organization, whose SOLE PURPOSE was for nothing more than this matter. Each issue had the latest legal hassles that some hunter or state was facing. Admonitions to write the congressmen in that state or county or whatever, etc... And each issue rehearsed and stressed the importance of making sure that you too didn't run afoul of laws. You know, like the code-of-ethics clearly said (which was also coming about on each detector instructions about that time): "I will know and abide by all laws".
Nothing in the above paragraph can be argued with. The concept was great, and our club send extra money, above and beyond our dues. And we did send letters to to the addresses given to us. All so far-so-good.
But an odd thing started to happen, that I witnessed firsthand: Once the "scary stories" started making the rounds, people then knew (and was rehearsed in the newsletters) that they should "know all laws". And this was most often interpretted as meaning "go ask". So people started to do JUST THAT! I mean, afterall, you "don't want to become the next statistic" do you? And afterall, you wouldn't want to "get arrested" would you? And afterall, we need to make sure there's no laws against it, right? So what better way to find out, than to ask? I mean, who better to ask, than the ENTITY themselves, right? It all made perfect sense, and this, we were told, was to put our hobby in the right light, to be ambassadors of a good image, and so forth. All sounds good so far, right?
But the odd outcome, in a lot of cases, was "no's" filtered around amongst the ranks of md'rs, at places where ....... some of us old-timers, had simply always gone, and never had a problem. In fact, it seemed sort of odd that you "needed to ask", to begin with (it had never occured to us). And when you would ask the newbie "why did you ask?", they would point to material, stories, admonitions, etc... that they'd read, in material not-unlike what the FMDAC was putting out.
NOW I'M NOT FAULTING the FMDAC. What their intention was, was good and nobel. No one can argue with a solidarity on the behalf of their chosen hobby. But I wish there had been some way to have ..... back then ... and even now .... to explain to folks that the WAY to find out if there's any rules or laws against them, is too look it up. NOT go asking "can I?" type questions. But this was never made clear. In fact, to the contrary, stories also circulated (and still do to this day), of people who successfully "got permission" at their city, or county or state or whatever. The connotation of this is easy to see: It was as if to imply: "
and so too should you do as I have done, and go get permission" Ie.: the mere fact that someone got a "yes", simply means, that therefore permission was needed (lest how else could they have answered your question, if their say-so, wasn't required?).
At a certain point, I came to realize, having seen the evolution of the before and after, that the pyschology of "no one cares, till you ask" was taking hold. Not always mind you, but enough that ..... it was starting to make sense. So, I would never ask. But the problem THEN becomes, is anyone with such an attitude, was/is looked at as "lawless", etc...
Believe me, I tried. I tried to go the "high road". The turning point for me, was in the late 1980s, the local high school hear (built in 1919) was being renovated and reconstructed. A part of the plans called for tearing out the inner court grass plaza. Mind you, hundreds of kids a day sat on that lawn, eating their lunch, for 70+ yrs.! Sounded like a great opportunity to metal detect, when the tractors were to tear out the grass. So as president of our club, I orchestrated a nice letter requesting permission, so as to do "the right thing". We showed them our liability insurance, told them that all items would be donated to the city museum, etc.... We waited, waited, and waited for a reply. Then made calls finding out where our request sat, etc... Meanwhile, the demolition crews came in. Then eventually, I could see through the fence, that the grass was being scraped! So I put my efforts into high gear, making calls to the decision makers in-whose hands our request sat. However, one night, on my way home from work, I drove by the site. I could
SEE a fellow md'ing inside there!! So I parked, went in, and could see that it was a local guy I knew (who wasn't a club member). I told him
"Hey, how did you get in here? We are waiting for them to approve us to come in!?" He looked at me like I was from outer-space! He said:
"I just waited till after 5pm, and walked right in! It's a public school isn't it?" No one cared. He'd been there several days already, and had dozens of silver coins, fistfulls of wheaties, etc... He opened up his apron and showed me. As we were talking, an after-school janitor walks up, to see what my friend's latest finds were for that night (apparently they'd been gabbing over the previous few nights, and the janitor was now excited to see each night's new tallies).
THAT DID IT. I couldn't resist. I walked back to my truck, got my detector, and joined in the fray!! However, in the days that followed, our "answer" came back from city hall school district people: "no".
When word leaked out that I'd been in the site (and the rest of the club not there), it caused chaos, bad feelings, and an attitude of how I'd been lawless or something
As club president, you can imagine that I felt bad. A few members never returned (or from then-on-out, looked at me askew anyhow). THAT was when I was beggining to "GET IT". I began to wonder if things like this, that I was seeing on this micro-scale, weren't also true of larger county, city, federal, and even country-wide scales. And the more I look at the different stories, tracing back to genesis of dire-rules, the more I am inclined to think that the vast majority of them start, by md'rs thinking they need to make themselves a big red "x" in need of others princely sanctions
