masshooter
Moderator
I came across the following newspaper articles while trying to find the Kahr Arms facility address in Worcester. Fact is stranger than fiction. Turns out they are owned/operated, at least indirectly, by "Moonies". Not only that, but ever wonder why the Washington Post is anti-gun, and the Washington Times is pro-gun, well read on...
Despite their good reviews, I don't think I would buy from this company.
http://felix.vcu.edu/~dbromley/unificationchurchLink.htm http://www.wb56.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/news/03219903.htm/map
Moonies making guns?!
Rev. Moon's son operates Worcester gun plant
WORCESTER -- The father preaches peace, but the son deals in the weapons of war. But for Kook Jin "Justin" Moon, son of self-proclaimed messiah Rev. Sun Myung Moon, that's just fine.
Justin Moon, 28, is chief executive officer of Kahr Arms, a Worcester gun company. His father, the Rev. Moon, preaches peace and love.
"Like most tools, weapons are neither good nor evil," the 28-year-old Moon told The Boston Globe. "That is determined by the user and the purpose for which he or she uses the tool. ... My father is a clergyman, but that does not mean that my occupation makes a statement about the church."
But Tom Diaz, author of "Making a Killing," a book critical of the gun industry, is unconvinced.
"To me it raises a serious question about the sincerity of the church's message," Diaz said. "Is their message world peace, or is it about the ability to make a buck?"
Rev. Moon's Unification Church, founded in 1954, has the stated goal of promoting world peace. He has claimed to have spoken personally with Jesus and Moses, and also claims to have millions of members.
Many critics call the church, which has extensive business operations, a cult, accusing the leadership of employing devious recruitment tactics, brainwashing techniques and methods to dupe members out of money.
Justin Moon, who declined to be interviewed but gave written responses to questions submitted by the newspaper, said his company grew out of his interest in military history and his enjoyment of recreational shooting.
He and church officials both insist Kahr Arms is independent of the Unification Church. A Virginia holding company for some of the Rev. Moon's businesses, One Up Enterprises Inc., said it does not release financial information and did not answer questions about whether it is affiliated with the gun factory.
But the Globe said corporation papers and interviews with ex-church members familiar with the Moon family's business enterprises indicate that Kahr Arms and its corporate parent, Saeilo Inc. of Blauvelt, N.Y., have been components of the elder Moon's commercial network.
"While Moon's name does not appear on any business documents by virtue of his position as the 'messiah,' he has total operational control, especially in a business that's run by his son," said Larry Zilliox, a Virginia private investigator who specializes in the Moon organization. "There's a lot of interlocking relationships."
Church officials insist the business is not affiliated with the church, and say it's also not inconsistent with church teachings for Justin Moon to manufacture guns.
"Unification doctrine teaches nonaggression while supporting the right to defend oneself and defend others against evil," said church spokesman Chris Corcoran. "In this sense, we hold in common with other faiths that it is not a violation of religious principles to invest in legitimate arms industries."
Justin Moon said it is no more ironic for a member of the Unification Church to run a gun factory than it would be for a member of a synagogue or a mosque to operate a defense contractor.
Copyright 1999 by WB56 and The Associated Press.
All Rights Reserved.
Moon Empire Gets a Bang For Its Buck
Unification Church Tied to Arms Maker
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 1999; Page A01
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."
Page: 00
PO
Preaching Peace, Making Guns
The Unification Church has financial ties to prosperous Kahr Arms, a gun
manufacturing company. Its Kahr K9, reviewed in a March 1996 Guns &
Ammo article below, is marketed as a small but potent weapon.
SOURCE: Guns&Ammo
Despite their good reviews, I don't think I would buy from this company.
http://felix.vcu.edu/~dbromley/unificationchurchLink.htm http://www.wb56.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/news/03219903.htm/map Moonies making guns?!
Rev. Moon's son operates Worcester gun plant
WORCESTER -- The father preaches peace, but the son deals in the weapons of war. But for Kook Jin "Justin" Moon, son of self-proclaimed messiah Rev. Sun Myung Moon, that's just fine.
Justin Moon, 28, is chief executive officer of Kahr Arms, a Worcester gun company. His father, the Rev. Moon, preaches peace and love.
"Like most tools, weapons are neither good nor evil," the 28-year-old Moon told The Boston Globe. "That is determined by the user and the purpose for which he or she uses the tool. ... My father is a clergyman, but that does not mean that my occupation makes a statement about the church."
But Tom Diaz, author of "Making a Killing," a book critical of the gun industry, is unconvinced.
"To me it raises a serious question about the sincerity of the church's message," Diaz said. "Is their message world peace, or is it about the ability to make a buck?"
Rev. Moon's Unification Church, founded in 1954, has the stated goal of promoting world peace. He has claimed to have spoken personally with Jesus and Moses, and also claims to have millions of members.
Many critics call the church, which has extensive business operations, a cult, accusing the leadership of employing devious recruitment tactics, brainwashing techniques and methods to dupe members out of money.
Justin Moon, who declined to be interviewed but gave written responses to questions submitted by the newspaper, said his company grew out of his interest in military history and his enjoyment of recreational shooting.
He and church officials both insist Kahr Arms is independent of the Unification Church. A Virginia holding company for some of the Rev. Moon's businesses, One Up Enterprises Inc., said it does not release financial information and did not answer questions about whether it is affiliated with the gun factory.
But the Globe said corporation papers and interviews with ex-church members familiar with the Moon family's business enterprises indicate that Kahr Arms and its corporate parent, Saeilo Inc. of Blauvelt, N.Y., have been components of the elder Moon's commercial network.
"While Moon's name does not appear on any business documents by virtue of his position as the 'messiah,' he has total operational control, especially in a business that's run by his son," said Larry Zilliox, a Virginia private investigator who specializes in the Moon organization. "There's a lot of interlocking relationships."
Church officials insist the business is not affiliated with the church, and say it's also not inconsistent with church teachings for Justin Moon to manufacture guns.
"Unification doctrine teaches nonaggression while supporting the right to defend oneself and defend others against evil," said church spokesman Chris Corcoran. "In this sense, we hold in common with other faiths that it is not a violation of religious principles to invest in legitimate arms industries."
Justin Moon said it is no more ironic for a member of the Unification Church to run a gun factory than it would be for a member of a synagogue or a mosque to operate a defense contractor.
Copyright 1999 by WB56 and The Associated Press.
All Rights Reserved.
Moon Empire Gets a Bang For Its Buck
Unification Church Tied to Arms Maker
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 1999; Page A01
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."
Page: 00
PO
Preaching Peace, Making Guns
The Unification Church has financial ties to prosperous Kahr Arms, a gun
manufacturing company. Its Kahr K9, reviewed in a March 1996 Guns &
Ammo article below, is marketed as a small but potent weapon.
SOURCE: Guns&Ammo
That's okay I can take it. 
. I can't claim to be an expert on the moonies, but from what I do know about them, their leaders' beliefs, motives, and tactics are questionable at best. I can't help but wonder how this guy built his billion dollar empire. Did any of the money come from his followers? If so, just how much financial benefit do they receive from their "investment"? Like Tecolote, I'd rather not give them my money. There are plenty of other great gun makers out there.