>From Int'l Herald Tribune <<If you can't beat 'em, convert 'em, and you don't want to join 'em, well, put 'em in front of a 'heater' ...>> <Picture: [ Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday ]> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paris, Thursday, March 11, 1999 Unification Church Is Tied to U.S. Gun Company ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By John Mintz Washington Post Service ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON - With parts of its sprawling business empire in decline, the Unification Church headed by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is finding profits in one of the least-known of its commercial ventures: making guns. Mr. 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 shoot-outs from speeding black sedans. The ties between Kahr Arms and the Unification Church headed by Mr. 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 Mr. 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 had 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, Massachusetts, is controlled by Kook Jin (Justin) Moon, 28, the elder Moon's fourth son, who is slated to be second-in-command of the multibillion-dollar Moon empire when his 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 see 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 Mr. Moon saying he was quitting partly because of the church's involvement with Kahr Arms. ''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 markets a controversial type of small, six-inch-long (15 centimeters) 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. 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 National Rifle Association 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., of West Hurley, New York, 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, on 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <Picture>� ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
