They say that in the open, but in secrecy they know the truth.
The truth is this ;
The gov is afraid of having to go into the mountains of West Virginia, parts of the Carolinas, Tennessee and Ohio.
Those places will have guerilla warfare comparable to the Viet Cong in Nam. They took coal mining away from them as income, many of them hunt and know the area like the back of their hand.
I did not include where I live in this, but there are actual bunkers and bomb shelters all over here because of the WWII munitions plants.
So for the white house to make this claim, they are making idle threats.

I have not looked up the stats on how many licensed hunters there are in those states and that isn’t counting the people who hunt without a permit.

Each state in the U.S.A. has some excellent hunting and fishing areas, many very remote, indeed. People generally hunt and fish for food. Hunters are oftentimes excellent shots; many grew up hunting, and some have been in the Military. Lots of hunters are better than what you will find at the Olympics. The athletes at the Olympics are competing for medals. Hunters are finding their food. Yes, the guvmint is afraid, with good reason. They can have all the gizmos and gadgets they like, and laser sights and so on, but there are other dangers to the guvmint hostiles out there about which said hostiles have zero idea.