Dude, luv ya too, I consider you to be a "long-post" brother. I know you caught a lot of crap about your Dents Run post, and I catch a lot of crap about some of my long posts, lol. But it's painfully obvious to me with your reply that you're deflecting. You were quite confident saying "nobody's going to jail", yet jail time is written into the law. And if it's written in the law, it's there to be used.
Craig mentioned that you're gonna try to sell me your "snake-oil" opinion, lol. OK, you're entitled to your opinion, even if it's "snake-oil", but your opinion doesn’t change the facts and what the law actually is. And your reply doesn't address any part of the law or any specifics I laid out in my post. Instead, you deflected by changing the topic and blaming AI and your refusal to "engage" with AI, as if AI just conjured & made up the law, lol. Man Tom, that's a bit weak, if you're not a politician, then you really missed your calling because they just love giving answers to questions that were never asked or responding to questions that could implicate them or catch them in a lie or misstatement by changing the topic or blaming someone else.
Sure, I like using AI for research and to gather information for me, just like we’ve all been using Google & Bing for many years, ever hear of them? But AI didn’t “vomit” out my post. Like Google & Bing, AI is just a tool, it doesn't create my posts, it just gathers up hard to find information for me that would take me hours to find. But it finds that information for me in seconds. But the writing, words, layout and presentation in the post, they're mine, so maybe I'm AI too, just a lot slower, lol.
I've also used Google and sometimes Bing to conduct searches. But when I use Google or Bing searches, I have to go through mounds of individual listings to try to find the info I'm looking for, and depending on what I'm searching for, it can take a LOT of time to piece all the information together. AI doesn't conjure or create information out of thin air, all AI does is conduct internet searches like I would have to do, to find the specific information I requested, but while it might take me hours to find all the information, AI finds it at superhuman speed, usually about 3 or 4 seconds. And where AI REALLY shines and is most helpful is when trying to find Gov’t information, laws, etc. Ever try to find something on a Gov’t website? The word Frustrating doesn’t even begin to cover the experience. I consider trying to find something on Gov’t websites manually to be a dreadful and Brain Melting experience.
But since you apparently have an aversion to AI, I’ll take the time to make 1 last attempt to present the information to you in a form you might find more receptive. So, I’ll try this the old fashion way.
Note: there’s a chance I might miss a detail or two, because the information I’m looking for isn’t on just 1 website, remember it’s the Gov’t we’re dealing with, it requires piecing together information from multiple websites & multiple documents that never seem to end. One link leads to the next which leads to another link which leads to another and on and on. It’s like trying to navigate a spider web.
So here goes. First, let’s go to the
Assateague Island National Seashore website page that lists Laws & Policies, which can be found at:
https://www.nps (dot gov) /asis/learn/management/lawsandpolicies.htm. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see a link for “
Metal Detecting in National Parks”. Good, so we should be able to find the information we’re seeing by clicking that link? LOL, not a friggin’ chance.
Clicking that link takes us to a page that outlines
36 CFR 2.1,
Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources:
https://www.ecfr (dot gov) /current/title-36/chapter-I/part-2/section-2.1.
Section a7 references possessing or using a metal detector. But where’s the penalties, etc.? They’re not listed in this section because apparently, the Code of Federal Regulations uses a “cross-reference” legal structure. So, to get this information, we have to follow several more steps to connect the Park regulation to the Federal Criminal Code, which means we have to continue more searching through the Gov’t spider web.
So, we need to find
36 CFR § 1.3(a) which covers the
Penalties under the Code of Federal Regulations, so we go to:
https://www.ecfr (dot gov) /current/title-36/chapter-I/part-1/section-1.3. But wait, all that I see on this page is anyone convicted of violating a provision of the regulations shall be subject to the criminal penalties provided under
18 U.S.C. 1865. WTF??
I clicked on the
18 U.S.C 1865 link and it took me to an online pdf:
https://www.govinfo (dot gov) /content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title18/pdf/USCODE-2024-title18-partI-chap91-sec1865.pdf. The font is tiny, my eyes are already starting to glaze over, and my brain is starting to hurt, lol. I had to look through the pdf but on page 1, at the very bottom right side is
1865, National Park Service, where it mentions
imprisonment of not more than 6 months, fines under this title, or both (prison & fine), and be
adjudged to pay all cost of the proceedings.
To confirm prison time, I had to find
18 USC 3559: Sentencing classification of offenses, so I headed over to:
https://uscode.house (dot gov) /view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section3559&num=0&edition=prelim. Since violating the metal detecting prohibition on Federal Beaches is considered to be a Class B misdemeanor, I looked under the
first category of offences under 3559, and
number 7 provides the penalty for violating a Class B misdemeanor, which is “
six month or less but more than thirty days”. Hmm,
I knew jail time was up to 6 months, but I didn’t know about the 30-day minimum. So, anyone getting convicted would be looking at facing a minimum of 30 days in jail, but no more than 6 months. I found something that AI didn’t tell me about, so I think I deserve a gold star, lol.
So, what about the $5,000 fine?
Since we now know that violating the no metal detector Federal Law is classified as a Class B Misdemeanor, we have to find the master Federal fine schedule, which is located at: https://www.law.cornell (dot edu) /uscode/text/18/3571. Under U.S. Code § 3571, section (b), number (6), it states for a Class B or C misdemeanor that does not result in death, not more than $5,000. So that confirms that a fine of up to $5,000 can be imposed.
What about the penalties for violating ARPA?
We also have to consider The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), because that can easily come into play on Assateague’s Federal Beach. We know there’s historic shipwrecks offshore, and ARPA classifies an archaeological resource to be 100 years old or older, go to: https://www.nps (dot gov) /teachers/classrooms/learn-law-arpa.htm, and scroll down to 4700bb - Definitions.
So, what if you were illegally detecting on their Federal Beach and found a small piece of metal that looked like trash, you pop it in your pouch thinking you’ll discard it later. But what if that small piece of metal turns out to have come from one of the offshore Historic Shipwrecks? You’d be in violation of ARPA and the penalties you’d face now just skyrocketed. But here’s another possibility. We’re in 2026; 100 years old would be 1926. What if you happened to find a coin or maybe a few coins dated prior to 1926? Maybe an Indian Head Penny or other coin dated 1925 or before. Those would be over 100 years old which would also violate ARPA.
To find out what the potential penalties for violating ARPA would be, we head over to:
https://www.govinfo (dot gov) /content/pkg/USCODE-2013-title16/html/USCODE-2013-title16-chap1B.htm. Scroll down to find section
§470ee. Prohibited acts and criminal penalties, then look at section
(d) Penalties. The fine now jumps up to $10,000, imprisonment jumps up to not more than one year, and/or you could get hit with both. BUT if the archaeological resources cost of restoration and/or repair exceeds the sum of $500, then the fine jumps again to no more than $20,000 and imprisonment jumps to not more than two years, or both. And if this happens to be your second or subsequent violation, the fine skyrockets to not more than $100,000 and imprisonment jumps to not more than 5 years or both.
All information AI provided to me was spot on, probably because it was pulling information from the same websites and documents I spent hours researching and going through manually. Except, it took me many hours to locate all this info, but AI gave me the same info in about 3 seconds.
Also, I had so many tabs with websites & documents open that my head was spinning. I vividly remember reading that the Ranger has the authority to confiscate all your equipment, and it specifically mentioned not only all your equipment, but also your vehicle. I knew that was the case, but it was good to see vehicles mentioned specifically under equipment confiscation. But of course, I was looking for something else when I saw that, and now I don’t remember where I did see it. But I saw it, it was there, and also confirmed the info that AI fetched for me.
We all know that AI isn’t infallible, but it’s getting better every day. That said, I was able to find 1 important thing that AI didn’t mention, so I should get a gold star, lol. I was able to verify the “up to 6 months in prison” that AI mentioned, on various websites and documents. BUT what AI didn’t mention was “six months or less
but more than thirty days”. I saw that when I was confirming prison time and reviewing
18 USC 3559: Sentencing classification of offenses. I knew prison was up to 6 months, I just didn’t know it was also for a minimum of 30 days, lol. So, I guess if you’re sent “up the river”, it’s not gonna be for a day or two, but for at least 30 days, to a max of 6 months.
ONE LAST THING:
Tom, I wasn’t able to verify how many detectorists have ever been arrested and or sent to prison, I wouldn’t even know where to look for that info. And although my son is a retired Federal Police Officer, and he can tell me about Federal Policing procedures and protocols that all Federal Officers follow, he wasn’t able to tell me about any arrests or imprisonment at Assateague, as he’s never been stationed there.
So, my long-post brother, just for you, I have a Law Enforcement Ranger down at Assateague who I reached out to. He wasn’t at his desk, so I’ll keep trying him. He should be able to tell me firsthand, with absolute certainty, if there’s ever been a metal detectorist arrested on Assateague Beach for violating the metal detecting prohibition. He should also be able to tell me if anyone who was arrested was ever sentenced to prison, even if just for a short time. I don’t know how long he’s been there, so he may only be able to tell me what he knows during the time he’s been at Assateague. He might not be able to go back decades to be able to tell me if arrests and/or imprisonment have ever occurred in years past, but maybe he’s heard stories from other Rangers. So, I’ll try to find out what he knows.
After I speak with him, regardless of any answers I receive, I’ll report back to let you know. I’m not looking at this as an “I’m right, you’re wrong” type thing, personally, I could care less what the answer is, because we already know that the laws are there and in place, and arrests and prison time is already spelled out in the law, so regardless of what he says, I know that arrests & prison is always on the table, and are available tools for the Rangers to use at their discretion. Just the fact that arrest & prison are possible is enough for me. That’s enough to hopefully ward off any thoughts someone might have about trying to break the law down there. I’m only interested in truth and facts, so whatever answers I get, I’ll reply back so that you and the other members will know what the real deal is down there.
OK, I’m done, 3rd long post reply completed. Time to move on to another topic, lol.
What does Earl say? Gotta have your big boy pants when you post in beach forum 
