This is one of the many reasons FedGov should be limited to the Enumerated Powers. A small FedGov would be incapable of threatening private citizens because it wouldn’t have the power to do so.
Realistically, the Fed was seen as the benevolent savior 100 years ago, give or take, against corrupt State gummints like Huey Long. For years Feds, the FBI were portrayed as “the good guys”. Now the Feds are even more corrupt than the states were.
Drone strikes are next, burn the ranch house, arrest the family for illegal guns.