I’m thinkin’ as far back as GCA ‘68. That really got the ball rolling after pos bobby k got popped.
Yes, they did. But you still could get them. My dad had ordered a WWII mauser through the mail and it was delivered to our home, a couple, three years before that.
He was hoping for a real German K98K like he’d seen during the war - he got a Yugo Mauser and he sent it back.
Years later, I got one from a buddy that was a cherry battlefield pickup bring back that was made in the Mauser Oberndorf factory in 1935. Full laminated stock, all parts with matching S/Ns and no Nazi markings. Truly a choice rifle. I bought it in his memory.