The CZ was sold in military Rod & Gun shops beginning in the early 80's. This business about the Iron Curtain belies the fact that there was not much demand for them.
Actually, your argument above, which seems to imply that the Western restrictions on imports from behind the Iron Curtain had nothing to do with the lack of widespread sale of CZ, is wrong.
Fact is, Tanfoglio's "clones" exist solely becuase of the restrictions that prevented the importation of CZ guns. They stole the design, and CZ didn't get a cent from the theft. Tanfoglio filled the niche that would have been filled by CZ had there been no import restrictions. Tanfoglio has sold a LOT of "clones."
THAT economic fact does NOT belie (give a false impression) about the cause of limited demand for the guns. Indeed, the import restrictions meant that when they could be imported at all -- often through several countries, eluding the restricts, or when they were made as true clones, or "duplicates" (in Switzerland), they were VERY, VERY expensive.
I've talked or exchanged messages with several folks who paid $800 - $1,000 for their CZ pistols during that period. (And I'll will be trading some C&R rifles for one that an acquaintance paid almost $700 for in the late 80's.)
That you can now buy them, almost 25 years later
for roughly HALF that price in greatly inflated dollars tells you something about the true COST of those "import" restrictions. The high price during the 70's and '80s (and later) had EVERYTHING to do with the lack of popularity and availability.
By the way, "Service pistol" doesn't mean ONLY "military" pistol. Military units do use service pistols, but so do police departments.
The Turkish military uses CZ-75Bs, and are moving to a variant of the same design built by Tanfoglio.
The state police in the Czech Republic used the PCR, and are now moving to the P-01 (another variant of the 75B PCR).
CZs are also used in Lithuania, Poland, South Africa, Zaire, Brazil and Zimbabwe -- in their military and in state-level police units.
The Greek Police Special Mission Detachement selected CZ75s and CZ85s as soon as they were available, and both of these pistol are still in use there after all these years.
Israel used them for a while and then moved to their own versions based on the simplified Tanfoglio clones. (Magnum Research's Baby Eagle and the Jericho pistol, to name two of several more.)
PCRCCW overstated case, but you also overstate the opposing view -- and ignore the reasons for their sparse availability.
