Mainstream media may not be directly controlled by the government, but it is controlled by the core of the state (the big bourgeoisie), which is not the case for the average gun owner. This is also more or less true for “non-governmental” organizations like lobby groups and think tanks. It ultimately depends on how wide a definition of “state” is used, but including every gun owner would mean that at least 30% of the population are part of the state, and (IMO) such an extremely broad definition doesn’t seem very useful

Regardless of the exact definition of “state”, we can certainly agree that the majority of USian gun owners are aligned with the interests of the state, whether they know it or not