Oregon Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning was asked to speak on the events of this past week, following his team’s 34-14 win at Northwestern. Lanning addressed two of the worst crises in America: the gun violence epidemic and sociopolitical division.
On the issue of our very lax gun laws he responded: “one side says it’s mental health, one side says it’s guns. It’s both…it should be really hard for a sick person to have a gun and everyone should see that”
Exactly, as crazy as it sounds, you can be on the No Fly List, and you can still easily get a gun. Whomever can’t see that as extremely problematic just does not have any common sense at all.
Right now, America is as divided as its been since 1968. Once could even argue that America is at its most divided point since the Civil War.
The Oregon coach also talked about the deep, serious divisions that currently permeate our culture, at every level:
“The people in the U.S. could learn a lot from our locker rooms, tons of differences, but they love each other, and the U.S. could use some of that…life matters and we’ve lost sight of that.”
Here below you can see everything that he had to say on these extremely serious and utterly complicated topics:
Oregon coach Dan Lanning on Charlie Kirk, sports, guns, mental health, America, his own kids and more: pic.twitter.com/qUWvDz3eze
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) September 13, 2025
If you clicked here because you were you expecting me to potentially try and tell you what I think, you should think…not going to happen.
You can think for yourself. Dan Lanning also made it clear that he agreed with Charlie Kirk on some things and he also disagreed with him on some other things.
Dan Lanning has discussed these much more important than football matters previously, one more than one occasion. He was very outspoken about these issues at Utah in 2023.
However, he has never officially endorsed any individual political candidate nor declared himself a member of any specific political party.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter