I was a pretty avid 'gun guy' for a while. Moving to Chicago (with our 'special' laws in that regard) slowed that metabolism down, but I was heavily invested in that whole scene for a long time.
The primary reason their hobby has been largely preserved (up to and including actually reversing a few crappy laws, ala the 1994 AWB) in the face of public sentiment that might otherwise be slightly opposed is that politicians fear the gun owner vote. Clinton attributed their vote to the colossal Republican Renaissance in 1994, any number of state politicians know they have to avoid the issue like a hot potato, lest they find themselves out of work. Those guys fight like absolute tigers. If you tell them that their interests are being threatened, they don't sit on their asses, sniveling and making internet posts, waiting for someone else to make phone calls, write letters, etc. They step up and do it themselves, one at a time, multiplied many, many times over. Politicians know if they pass even one gun law, they will immediately activate a significant bloc of voters to oppose them, campaign dollars start flowing to the opposition; messing with gun owners is poking the sleeping lion.
The opposition trots out the NRA as if they're some magical organization that has become unduly powerful. This isn't true. The reason they're 'feared' by politicians is because they control the political nukes that are the quickly mobilized gun owner vote.
Obviously, treasure hunters are a minuscule fraction of this. We're a small niche that doesn't command the same sort of involvement that the gun issue does. While everyone has an opinion on the gun issue, very few have an opinion on our issue, outside of the fringes on the pro or con side. With that said, shame on us that we've allowed the other side to hijack the entire dialog and stealthily curtail our rights, behind closed doors while no one's watching, even when damn near everyone in the middle would be behind us.
Unlike gun owners who face significant ideological opposition, very, very few are actively 'opposed' to treasure hunting. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and Greenie alike- we all read Treasure Island. We all had the same dreams of as kids. We all intuitively understand that this history doesn't come up from the bottom via the state. Its brought up by the big dreamers who actually go out and look for it... Save for a tiny handful of minded academics, if we were to take the time to step out and ask anyone who would listen, public sentiment would be firmly in our corner.
So, one has to ask- how in gods name is this happening? Why are we getting our collective asses kicked when John Q Public is on our side? The answer to that question arrives pretty quickly. Because, as best I can tell, we're doing absolutely nothing of substance to define ourselves or the broader issue at large. We're allowing the dialog to float out there in the political ethos, which is fertile ground for bureaucrat-ideologues to operate with political impunity, taking our rights away. After all, that's what bureaucrats do. They regulate, which translates to taking rights away. It's the only way they know to be 'productive'.
Step 1 isn't organizing everyone. It's bringing together the intellectual spearhead of experienced people, decision makers, ideas men, who can best craft our position to ultimately be presented to the public. We need a blanket association, free of individual interests, Type A hystericals, salesmen and people pushing their own, narrow agenda. Dr. Eugene Lyon always struck me as a level sort of guy, qualified to the moon and potentially on our side. Is he still out there kicking?
Someone qualified in the treasure hunting world really needs to step up and do this, invest their time, risk failure and be bull-headed about the whole thing. We have plenty of allies- the entire Metal Detecting world, for one. Until this gets put together, all we do is kvetch and snivel, make internet posts and watch as our rights are eroded away. Period.
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