WTF? Kahr=Moonies?
Brian Bunin
Church's Pistol Firm Exploits a Niche
Washington Post/March 10, 1999
By John Mintz
With parts of its sprawling business empire in decline, the Unification Church
headed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon is finding profits in one of the least-known
of its commercial ventures: making guns.
Moon's four-year-old gun company, Kahr Arms, has prospered amid glowing
reviews for the workmanship of its small but potent pistols. Last month, Kahr
Arms expanded, purchasing the company that manufactures Tommy guns, fabled in
Roaring '20s mob shootouts from speeding black sedans.
The ties between Kahr Arms and the Unification Church headed by Moon have
received almost no notice, both within the close-knit gun industry and among
church members. The business arm of the church, whose members believe that
Moon is the Messiah and was placed on earth to restore the Garden of Eden,
declined to clarify its involvement in the gun business.
One ex-member said that for years church leaders have tried to obscure the
movement's involvement with Kahr Arms. "They were afraid if anti-cult groups
found out, they'd have a field day," the former member said.
But an examination of corporate records and interviews with experts on the
secretive Moon empire demonstrate the links between the church's business
network and Kahr Arms. Kahr, whose factory is in Worcester, Mass., is
controlled by Kook Jin "Justin" Moon, 28, the elder Moon's fourth son and
slated to be second-in-command of the multibillion-dollar Moon empire when the
79-year-old father dies. Justin Moon and his siblings are revered by church
members as the Messiah's "True Children."
Some former members and gun industry critics perceive a contradiction between
the church's teachings and its corporate involvement in marketing weapons
promoted for their concealability and lethality.
"I see an irony, if not hypocrisy, that someone who professes peace and says
he's completing Jesus's work also manufactures for profit an implement with no
purpose other than killing people," said Tom Diaz, author of "Making a
Killing," a new book critical of the firearms industry. "What's the message,
turn the other cheek, or lock and load?"
Two years ago a demoralized British member wrote Moon saying he was quitting
partly because of the church's involvement with Kahr guns. "I might ask if
you, as a founder of a religious organization which has 'world peace' as one
of its goals, consider it appropriate to manufacture weapons for sale on the
mass market," the member wrote.
Kahr has been in the forefront of seizing on changes in state and federal law
and marketing a controversial type of small, six-inch-long handgun whose sales
are surging. Guns that size had been around for decades, but they could shoot
only small bullets.
Then in recent years, 31 states passed laws, promoted by the National Rifle
Association, allowing people to carry concealed weapons. Moreover, in 1994 the
government banned manufacture of guns able to hold more than 10 bullets. Now
unable to sell popular models shooting up to 21 bullets, the industry searched
for new products to sell.
Gun firms - with Kahr at the head of the pack - responded to these changes by
finding a new market niche to exploit - small but well-made pistols that fire
eight or fewer relatively large 9mm and .40-caliber bullets.
Emergency room physicians blame the spread in the last decade of 9mm and
.40-caliber guns for dramatic increases in more devastating and at times fatal
gunshot wounds. The NRA says the nation is safer because of the 2 percent or
so of adults who always carry handguns, and it cites studies supporting that
claim.
Kahr markets its guns for their concealability, among other things. Its K9
model is "the perfect pocket 9mm," says one ad. "No safeties to fumble with
when the pressure is on."
Combat Handguns magazine praised Kahr pistols as "made like a fine Swiss
watch." Soldier of Fortune said they "pass with flying colors" the key test of
any handgun their size: "close range, high stress, rapid-fire desperation
shooting when all else has failed."
Kahr guns are used by some police officers as backup weapons holstered on
their ankles and shoulders. They have not become popular with criminals, gun
experts say, because of their relatively high cost - about $750 apiece - and
because the firm is so new.
Last month Kahr Arms bought into a legendarily lethal product line by
purchasing Auto-Ordnance Corp., the maker of Thompson submachine guns. The
company was founded in 1916 to develop a portable machine gun that its
inventors hoped would win World War I. The "Trench Broom" arrived too late for
the war but was snapped up by gangsters like John Dillinger and Machine Gun
Kelly.
Now Kahr manufactures Auto-Ordnance's line of semiautomatic weapons and is
awaiting a federal license that will allow it to make the fully automatic
machine guns once beloved by gangsters.
One reason for the Unification Church's expansion into the gun business may be
that Moon has often placed money in ventures in which his children have a
personal interest. He bought a Manhattan recording studio for a son who was a
heavy-metal rock musician, and horse farms for two other children who rode on
Korea's Olympic equestrian teams. In the case of Kahr, the elder Moon was
drawn to the gun industry by his sons, who are avid firearms hobbyists, said
one former member.
Justin Moon graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an
economics degree in 1992. Then, under his father's orders, he instituted a
boardroom shake-up of the church's many firms, placing Moon relatives in the
key positions, the former member said. Like his father, "the son was afraid
when his dad died, the members would betray the family," the ex-member said.
"He wanted everything in the family's name."
Justin Moon then persuaded his father to invest $5 million in Kahr, arguing
that it would be a profitable venture. the ex-member said. The son, who has no
engineering training, has received five U.S. patents based on his claim that
he invented key technical innovations embedded in Kahr's guns. The parent
company of Kahr Arms, Saeilo Inc., is an offshoot of a cluster of 15 or so
other Moon-affiliated concerns, all called some variation of Saeilo and all in
the machine tool or car repair business. For years employees at various of the
Saeilo firms have been exhorted to meet sales targets so as not to displease
the elder Moon, called "True Father" or "TF."
David Bromley, a Virginia Commonwealth University sociologist who studies the
church, said members believe the companies "create connection to the Messiah.
.. They create a community and integrate work and family." Moreover, he said,
while followers privately view their firms and the church as essentially one
entity, in public they often "make fine distinctions between them."
Asked about the tie between the gun firm and the church enterprises, One Up
Enterprises Inc., the holding company over many of the church's businesses,
said in a statement that it "is not involved with the operations of Saeilo
Inc." Asked to elaborate, One Up said it "does not release financial
information to the public." Saeilo Inc. said its gun venture is profitable.
An examination of the Saeilo firms' data filed with federal agencies, the
telephone company and business reporting firms leaves no doubt that Saeilo
Inc. is connected to the rest of the Moon empire.
The church's One Up has long acknowledged that Saeilo Machinery (USA) Inc., a
machine tool firm, is an outright subsidiary of One Up. In statements to Dun &
Bradstreet and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Saeilo Inc. and
Saeilo Machinery describe themselves as "affiliates." The two firms'
headquarters share a telephone number at the same address in Blauvelt, N.Y.
Even as Kahr thrives, some of Moon's other business holdings are in serious
decline. His South Korean companies, which include concerns that make car
transmissions and sell ginseng, are $2 billion in debt, and many are in
bankruptcy. A car plant in China, Panda Motors, has gone under. In addition,
donations from members in Korea and Japan have dropped precipitously, in part
because of economic distress there.
Larry Zilliox, a McLean private investigator who has researched the Moon
business network for a decade, said Moon views enterprises such as Kahr as
critical to his future.
"Moon no longer looks at the church as the core organization," said Zilliox,
who first established the Kahr-Moon link. "The movement's business part is the
enduring part."
R M
BogusID
I wonder if they are blessed on their way out the door?
LOL
"Brian Bunin" <bb...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:H1S2g.4958$Lm5....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...