CZ manufactured guns for the Axis back in the 1930s and 40s. I'm not sure I'd want anything from a company that built guns for Hitler.
After annexation of Austria into Germany in WWII Austrian soldiers fought with the axis powers, yet Glock doesn't seem to have any problems selling today
Thin is, for the folks that don't closely follow the industry, they think 'Ah, a Colt! I've heard of that!'. Then they buy it, content that they have a Name Brand.
With all the new gun owners out there, that means something.
I'd wager that, just like most car owners have no idea what they drive (beyond A Honda, or A Ford), there are many, many gun owners that know they own 'A Ruger' or whatever, but not much else about it.
They know where to put the ammo, and what kind to use, but that's it.
To those owners, Colt means something. No matter who build it, or where.
With all the new gun owners out there, that means something.
I'd wager that, just like most car owners have no idea what they drive (beyond A Honda, or A Ford), there are many, many gun owners that know they own 'A Ruger' or whatever, but not much else about it.
They know where to put the ammo, and what kind to use, but that's it.
To those owners, Colt means something. No matter who build it, or where.
I'm sure they had a choice after annexation. The Germans knew where to get good firearms and went there first!
An interesting parallel here at home is how Harley Davidson became the iconic motorcycle. If my history serves me right, they were the only manufacturer at the time that didn't entirely shutdown regular production to support the war effort. As a result they were ready to sell sell sell when it was over and quickly because the dominant market player. Moral of the story --- no one cared what they did to get in the position though arguably it was not exactly the patriotic way to do business at the time.
Harley-Davidson actually used a brilliant marketing scheme to capture sales to police agencies across the US long before WW2. It's a pretty interesting story, actually.
I just shudder to think about how some of their firearms were used. I know a lot of factories run during occupation were manned by slave labor.
Do you use anything that was patented, manufactured by, or created by DuPont? Kevlar, plexiglass, lucite, Teflon, or neoprene to name a few? Because they had a very heavy hand in supplying nazi Germany the gas that was used in the chambers.
General Motors had a German division of its own and manufactured aircraft parts for the Luftwaffe.
Hitler admired Henry Ford for many things, and was a big supporter of him. Ford and GE competed to purchase German car manufacturer Opel back in the 1920s, viewing the opportunity to manufacture cars for Germany to be a huge opportunity. Ford won, and gained millions because of it.
There’s a lot of other companies we could go over, Alcoa, chase bank, Woolworth, IBM, to name a few, but unless you want me to, I’ll stop here. There’s plenty of treasured “all American” companies who supported nazi Germany and other bad people based upon completely free will and a desire to make money, as opposed to companies like CZ who were forced to by a regime.
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Thank God we liberated them! What happened to Czechoslovakia after the war? Did CZ start making arms for NATO?
