Shotgun Blasts Negative Shot Gun The Affirmative Response

The Negative Shotgun:

Since the affirmative must successfully defend each stock issue and the negative must only win one or two major issues, many debaters employ what is called the shotgun approach. The tactic takes the following form:

• The 1NC will rapidly deliver as many attacks as possible, some of them moderately developed and some of them poorly developed. Many college debaters have been heard bragging how they have advanced thirty or more issues in a single debate round. However, in U.I.L. this is generally frowned upon by the judges and will rarely be successful against experienced debaters.
• Instead, the 1NC should present as many relevant, strong, moderately well developed arguments as possible. Experienced debaters should be able to deliver eight attacks in the 1NC. Beginners should try to present at least six. If the arguments presented in the 1NC were strong, the 2AC will be forced to defend the issues raised in the 1AC and rebut the attacks raised in the 1NC. This will prevent the 2AC from extending any 1AC arguments or presenting any new affirmative issues.
• After the 2AC the negative will gain two strategic negative advantages: Time - The Affirmative will only have 10 minutes of speech time remaining compared to the Negative's 18 minutes. Issues - If the 1NC has done a good job, both sides will be even as to the number of issues now open for debate, i.e. eight each. The 2NC will then proceed to use its full eight minutes to fully develop 1NC arguments that show promise and to advance new, stronger solvency and disadvantage issues (from 4 to 6 new issues).
• Remember the 2NC does not have to worry about dropped issues; any 1NC arguments weakened in the 2AC can be defended and strengthened in the 1AR. After the 2NC, the judge's scorecard should look something like this:
       - Affirmative: 8 issues presented, 8 negative issues rebutted, 4-6 negative issues untouched.
       - Negative: 12-14 issues presented, 8 affirmative issues rebutted, 0 negative issues untouched.
• The 1NR then proceeds to defend and strengthen any 1NC arguments that have been weakened by the 2AC leaving just enough rebuttal time to mention the issues raised in the 2NC.
• The 1AR now faces an almost impossible task. He must fully refute the 4 to 6 new, well developed issues brought up by the 2NC and, in addition, he must devote adequate time to rebut all other affirmative and negative issues raised in the debate - somewhere around 16 issues.
• In many cases, the negative will win the round here because the 1AR will drop one or more issues.
• In the 2NR, the negative will collapse. From the twenty or so issues now open for debate, he will select around 10 of the most promising ones (i.e. 4 affirmative and six negative) and spend approximately thirty second on each. By the end of the rebuttal, the negative should have 10 strong issues, each of which can individually win the round.
• In the 2AR, the affirmative debater will have to cover all affirmative issues (approx. 8), rebut the remaining negative attacks (approx. 6), and provide a brief summary (approximately 20 seconds per issue).
• Overall, if the negative has successfully implemented their strategy, they will have a clear advantage in time, number of issues, and how well each issue is developed.

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The Affirmative Response:

To an inexperienced or moderately experienced debater, a negative shotgun blast seems impossible to win against. In actuality, the shotgun strategy is an illusion - the briefly developed negative arguments can be disposed of even more quickly than they were presented. If the 1AC was well planned and developed, it will hold up against the small pellets. Just stick with your game plan, keep control of the debate, and learn how to group and kill squirrels. A note to experienced debaters: Try something new. Don't stick to what you did last year - did it take you as far as you wanted to go?

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