Ancil“But we don’t have an army,” Sam said.
“We don’t need an army,” I said. “All we need is a group of people with the will to fight and guns….. Plenty guns.”
“We have enough guns for 20,000 soldiers,” Sam said.
“Well let’s give it to the people of San Fernando and let them fend for themselves,” I suggested.
“It’s not that easy. The country has a strict gun control policy. If the government freely gives guns to citizens it will be direct unlawfulness and be considered a crime according to the Constitution.”
“The constitution isn’t stopping the Midnight Robber, why should it stop us?” Megan asked.
“Because we aren’t unlawful vigilante’s bent on destruction,” Sam answered.
“So what can we could do?” I asked.
“Well we could pass it as a bill for all residents to have free access to guns but that will take weeks even months before becoming law. It can take up to 15 days between the first and second reading alone. We only have one more day,” Sam answered.
“Is there anyway, we could pass the bill in less than a day?” I asked.
“Well, that depends on a lot of things. But if it does happen then it would be the first time it ever happened in the history of this nation.”
“Time to make history then,” I said.
“Well we could definitely try,” Sam said. She then took out her phone and started calling up members of the senate, the House of Representatives, the President and the leader of the opposition ordering them to all gather in the Parliament House. The parliament wasn’t a seperate house but just a room within the Red House. It was a giant room with single tables lined up vertically in four rows separated into two by blood red carpets that was vacummed and dusted every day. The rows in the back were higher than the rows in the front and along them had the names of the respective ministers for whom the seats were allotted to. At the very end of the rows there was a large chair with embroidered metal along its edges like a king’s throne. But instead of a king, the presiding officer sat there in between two national flags. There were also a couple chairs in the middle of the room.
With help from Cornell Warren, the Minister of National security, Sam typed and printed the bill that was meant to be presented in Parliament. Then she, along with Megan and I, went to the parliament area about an hour after and met all the members of Parliament in a frenzy. Sam had Megan and I distribute the bill and the Order paper to all the members while she made herself comfortable in the chair allocated for the Prime Minister who was now deceased. Megan and I sat on the sidelines and observed the entire process.
The clerk read the name of the bill and the name of the Minister in charge, “Free Gun Distribution Bill, 2562 by the Minister of National Security.” It was simply a formality for the clerk to do so. This was the first reading. There was usually an interval of no less than five days between the first and second reading but the delay could have been suspended by motion or by leave or if the bill was urgent. That is, if there was agreement of the majority of Senators or Members, as the case may be, present in the chamber.
After the first reading there was an interval of about 20 minutes before the second reading which was something not usually done in parliament. President, Sentinel Carter, who sat in front didn’t seem to be very happy with the way things were going but there wasn’t really an alternative. If the bill failed to pass then the people of San Fernando would have no means to protect themselves. And since majority of taxpayers resided in San Fernando, if San- Fernando fell it would also be the fall of the government. One of the members suggested that the gates of San Fernando should be opened so that the people could freely leave but the bomb in Sam’s head didn’t make that the most appropriate decision even though some of the members of parliament couldn’t care less if Sam’s head exploded into a million pieces. The bomb was apparently also detached detonation, meaning that it explodes when it is detached from the brain making it almost impossible for a doctor to remove it without the bomb being disarmed first. The options weren’t really plentiful at the moment.
The second reading began and the Minister of National Security stood up. Sam was sitting right next to him and before he spoke she whispered something in his ear. He then cleared his throat and said, “every single person in this room witnessed the merciless assassination of our honorable Prime Minister Winston Jack. I know that some of you here may not have been too fond of his ways and some of us may have disagreed with some of the decisions that he had made. But one thing that we could all agree on this day is that the Midnight Robber must be stopped.” The members of parliament all knocked their hands on the table as a form of showing their agreement. “This Bill that is about to be passed will give us the means of stopping the Midnight Robber. We don’t have an army but we have a group of people that will be willing to take up arms and defend their families, friends and ultimately this nation. This is the only reason why the Guns Control policies must be amended.” He then sat down.
The members of the parliament all knocked the table. The Presiding Officer looked on waiting for anyone to raise their hand in order to express their views on what the Minister of National Security had said. It didn’t seem like anyone had anything to say until the Minister of Finance rose her hand, stood up and said, “I have family in San-Fernando and the last thing I want is for them to become victims of this masked vigilante. I agree with everything that was said here.” She then sat down.
The Presiding Officer then asked the question, “those in favor say ‘aye’ Those against say ‘no’.” The majority said “Aye” so the Presiding Officer said, “the ayes have it.”
The process went on for quite a while. The members of parliament all dropped their shoulders and slouched in their chairs as time went on and the tiredness seeped in. The process went on all through the night. I fell asleep somewhere in between and when I woke up it was still going on. I checked the time and it was 7 am. That only gave us about 17 hours till Independence Day. That wasn’t good. There was a bit of chatter coming from the House but it didn’t seem as though anything was going on. Eventually everyone started filing out from the house. The Bill had been passed and it was now an Act. It was the fastest ever time that it took for a Bill to become an Act through the Parliament system in more than a century. But that was just the first step. The next step was to use the law to defend the Twin Republic.
