civil war 22, I agree with those respondants who say this petition is not a good thing. For a few reasons:
a) As people here point out, you are simply NOT going to get sacred federal historic landmarks opened up to "yahoos" like us. Would we all love it if could happen? SURE! But will it happen? No. Of course not. And you can ask and petition till you're blue in the face, and no one's going to let you go dig at shiloh, bodie, gettysburg, etc.....
b) In the process of petitioning (even IF you could get someone to take you seriously) it would only end up in more scrutiny AGAINST us. You simply put a big bullseye on your hobby, for the future, when those powers-that-be go to look into this "serious matter". Then you just bring and enforce this issue to their mind, that then gets passed down to county and city levels, etc... So sometimes the LESS attention, is the better. Sure it doesn't solve the problem where you're already told "no" (granted), .... but the LAST thing you want, is for anyone to rehearse over and over again how supposedly evil and wrong this hobby is, as they rehearse their reasons to say no to your petitition.
c) Re.: the "state lands" part of your petition: It's incorrect that all state lands are off-limits. There's lots of states where you can hunt various types of state lands, and no one cares. Is that to say you might not find some cultural heritage wording that might be morphed to tell you "no"? No. Of course not. But in actual practice, even at some of the dire sounding states, it's not an issue (as long as you're not being a nuisance, going into obvious historic sacred monuments, etc...). State of CA, for instance, is one of those dire-sounding states on the list (tells you to inquire at each kiosk you come to, etc...). However, at state-of-CA beaches, you can detect to your heart's content, and not be bothered. So as you can see (by way of example), a "petition" or to "seek clarification" (on whether those cultural heritage things apply to the beach too), is NOT a good thing to do.
