11/10/2009

By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

British debaters Dan

Bradley and Andrew Tuffin

aren't gun-shy over a good

argument, but they thought

Monday night they may have

to duck behind the podium.

"Should we ask how

many people are packing?"

Bradley quipped. His debate

opponent, John Mikolajcik,

assured him guns aren't

allowed on the Kansas Wesleyan

University campus.

The two British debaters

were to argue for the repeal

of the Second Amendment

against KWU debaters Mikolajcik

and Meriah Forbes

during the opening event of

the university's "Issues and

Advocacy" series.

down, we're going to go down in a hail of bullets," Bradley said.

Mikolajcik, a senior in speech and sociology from Derby, said he owns firearms.

Before the British debaters leave for Oregon -- the next stop on their two-month tour of the United States -- he is going to take them to a shooting range.

Tuffin, 24, and Bradley, 26, were chosen by the English-Speaking Union, a charity founded in 1918 to promote "international understanding

and friendship through the use of the English language,"

for the U.S. debate tour.

Tuffin said they were chosen through a "rigorous process of assault courses each more devilish than the last." During the first round of interviews held at the House of Commons, candidates were given their topic and told to speak on it as soon as they walked in the door.

Some culture shock

In their first week and a half in the United States, their biggest culture shock, so far, was at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Saturday, where they watched Kansas State University's football team defeat Iowa State University.

"There were two 500-piece marching bands, cheerleaders

and a fly-over of Apache helicopters," Bradley said. "We don't have that for our professional teams, let alone at college."

They also enjoyed a haunted house in Kansas City, which was unlike anything

they had experienced.

They said they hope to visit a town where their hosts tell them the specialty is salad.

"We'll have gained at least 20 pounds by the time we get home with all this red meat," Bradley said. In Salina, they were going to be treated to a meal at Daimaru Steakhouse.

Bradley has competed in more than 75 debate competitions,

reaching the semifinals

of the World University Debating Championships. He was one of the top 10 speakers in the European Championships.

Bradley, former president of the Manchester Debating Union and the Northern and Midlands Debating Alliance, is in the process of submitting his thesis for a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Manchester.

He recently completed an internship on climate change policy at the Houses of Parliament.

Tuffin took up debating after a broken foot left him unable to play on the university

field hockey team. Tuffin is active on the European

universities' debating circuit. He received his master's in philosophy from King's College, London.

Humor, persuasion

Gary Harmon, director of forensics and debate at Kansas

Wesleyan, said he hopes his students will continue to have the opportunity each year to face British debaters, because they are so well-versed in the parliamentary style, which is more communicative and attempts to sway the audience through humor and persuasion, unlike the rapid-fire, fact-laden approach commonly used in U.S. debating.

Bradley and Tuffin have one definite advantage.

"People find our jokes funnier, not because they're necessarily better, but because they're said with an English accent," Bradley said.

The KWU debaters and their British opponents agreed to debate the Second Amendment. The "show" debates, which are held before an audience and without a winner being declared, are designed to give the audience a good time, Bradley said.

"We could stand up here and debate international economic policy changes, but who cares?" he said.

In several other locations, the British debaters have appeared, their topic was assigned to them.

Their first debate was in support of socialized medicine.

"We said, 'We've just landed, and we think your country's rubbish, and it should be more like ours,' " Tuffin said.

We've been set up

Then they advocated harsher punishments for crimes against inmate debate opponents at a maximum

security prison in upstate New York. The audience

and judging panel were made up of prison guards.

"You've never felt more ridiculous than when you're told by a guy who's in jail for murdering three cops that your policy is cruel," Bradley said.

Tuffin said their inmate opponent was actually a "very intelligent, polite young man," and the experience

led them to think about what his life could have been like under different

circumstances.

In Pittsburgh, they were assigned to argue for cracking

down even harder on protesters just one week after police had used tear gas to disburse protesters in that city.

"We've just been set up again and again on this tour," Tuffin said.

But, perhaps, the hard part is behind them, Tuffin said.

"Hopefully, by Florida, we'll be giving candy floss to children and just saying

the American dream is good," he said.

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.