And I'm sure you remember some "Political Correctness"-driven butt-kissing by Ruger & Smith, back when Clinton was president. Kind of funny about Colt and HK, though: folks generally attribute Colt's 'attitude problem' to corporate mismanagement (i.e., stupidity), while with HK, it's assumed to be the stereotypical, teutonic ubermensch mindset...
Actually, at the time HK started their version of that, they were owned by a very squeamish British firm. It wasn’t US PC sensibilities they were trying to assuage. HK also got screwed by BATFE’s schizophrenic regulation of the import of their products, as most were not made in the US. (See the weird ban on the classic HK paddle mag release by the BATFE.) Remember, a LOT of their product lines were banned from import *by name* in various laws like the AWB or classed as “no sporting purpose” even if they were sporting weapons by the 1989 Import Ban. They did continue to develop make, import and sell pistols and shotguns.
Colt, on the other hand, decided it would be a good idea to all but discontinue their revolvers, only sell overpriced 1911s, refuse to develop a polymer pistol line or a modern carry pistol line thus missing the entire CCW revolution, even without such restrictions. Colt management is also on public record as saying that civilian sales were not important to them at all and that it could all dry up as far as they were concerned as they would prefer to sell to LEO and military only. The one time some idiot journalist type implied that HK was not interested in civilian sales of everything they made/imported that was legal for civilians to possess, HK fired back with a “Nope, that’s wrong and we’re cutting you off now.” The journo, Jerry Tsai, got hammered so much by HK and the firearms community that he had to resign from the magazine he’d founded, Recoil.
Colt’s attitude problem *is* due to mismanagement and stupidity. HK *does* have a customer service problem as most German companies do, but they’re selling all the models and types they legally can to civilians and not pulling models or trying to run off civilian buyers. Puts them way above Colt’s virtue signaling.
I should also mention that I don’t own any product from either company. Colt is overpriced substandard junk and HKs are just plain overpriced.