I think the implied message is that one does not need the military's fanaticism about cleaning to keep one's gun running.
I have two rifles I take with me into the shower just like we did in the military
both are as close to weather resistant as possible, stainless, synthetic stocks
and see hard use and I
guns that only see range use and fair weather hunting gets taken care of to but not to the same extent because they don't see the same type of (ab)use