Kook Jin Moon

Kook Jin Moon, more commonly known as Justin Moon, (born July 17, 1970) is a firearms designer and businessman. He owns and operates Kahr Arms, a U.S. small arms manufacturing company and subsidiary of Saeilo, a company controlled by his father, Sun Myung Moon (founder of the Unification Church).

Growing up in the True Family

Kook Jin Moon was born as the fourth son of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han in South Korea, and in 1973 moved to the U.S., to Tarrytown, New York, with his family.

Kook Jin Moon is considered by Unification Church teachings to be one of the "True Children," by virtue of birth in 1970 into the "True Family" of Sun Myung Moon, who has called himself "humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent." ["God's heart and love for humanity has been the heart of a parent who loves a child. God could not ignore the immorality and wickedness of this world, so He finally sent me to correct these things and to tear down the barriers of war and conflict for all eternity. In doing so, He gave me the qualification to be the Savior, Messiah, returning Lord and True Parent who appears in the world as the substantial body of God Himself." [http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/Mspks/2003/20031015_1.html Let Us Perfect the Peace Kingdom Through the Peace United Nations] , speech given by Rev. Moon at the Inaugural Assembly of the Headquarters of the Interreligious and International Peace Council (IIPC) - October 15, 2003 - Seoul, Korea] The family environment in which he was raised has been described as "lavish" [Hong, Nansook. (1998). "". Little, Brown. (ISBN 0-316-34816-3)] and as one of "luxury and privilege," though he disputes this. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007]

They are called the True Children, and they have lived their lives accordingly. “The Moon kids acted like royalty,” Graham Lester, who was a member of the Unification Church from 1979 to 1995, tells me....

Home for the True Family was a guarded 18-acre mini-castle in Irvington, New York, a tony suburb located along a sweep of the Hudson River. Named East Garden, after Eden, the estate included two smaller houses and a three-story brick mansion with 12 bedrooms, seven baths, a bowling alley, and a dining room equipped with a waterfall and pond. There were other castles and mansions too—in South Korea, Germany, Scotland, England—and few expenses were spared. The children had tutors from Japan, purebred horses, motorbikes, sports cars, and first-class vacations with blank-check spending. “The kids got whatever they wanted,” says Donna Collins, who grew up in the church. “At one point, the Moon kids were each getting $40,000 or $50,000 a month for allowance. They had wads of cash. I remember once in London where [one of Justin’s sisters] spent like $2,000 a day; I saw a drawer filled with Rolexes and diamonds.”

Justin, however, doesn’t remember that kind of indulgence. “I got nothing when I was young,” he says. “I didn’t get one dollar. I drove a beat-up Datsun.”

]

He attended Hackley School, a small private school in Tarrytown, N.Y.

Early interest in firearms

Kook Jin Moon, who later took the name Justin Moon, recounts his early interest in firearms:

My first experience shooting was with my older brother when I was 14. He also liked guns and took me shooting with friends and family. We would have a great time setting up and shooting targets with an assortment of firearms. Ever since that first shooting experience, I continued to pursue my interest in firearms. [Massad Ayoob, "The Rise of the House of Kahr", "American Handgunner" (November/December 2001) pp. 58-67.]

One of Moon's friends [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007.] Porter now describes the friendship in a negative light:

From ages 16 to 20, Porter was considered one of Justin’s “expected” friends—local church members summoned to the Moon compound to keep the True Children company. “It was never friendship,” Porter recalls one night over drinks in Manhattan. “Think of it as a bunch of people meant to keep the prince happy. We were beneath him and there to serve, to laugh at his jokes, be abused by him, be his yes-men.”

] who has since left the Unification Church, Tim Porter, was quoted in a recent article about Moon regarding their late teen years together:

When [Porter] was called to East Garden, he would join the Moon kids in target shooting, tackle football, wrestling. “Sometimes [Justin] would bring in his younger brothers and have them beat us up,” Porter says. “His point was that we were wussies and he wanted us to be stronger. It was like military training, getting us ready for the time when we would take on the unbelievers.” According to Porter, Justin regularly reminded him and the other members’ kids about his father’s elevated place in God’s drama.

At age 18, Moon got a license to carry a handgun, co-signed by one of his older brothers, [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007] ] but he wasn't satisfied with the small caliber available in a compact handgun. "I had been licensed to carry in New York State since I was 18 and had looked for an ultra-compact 9-mm. pistol," Justin later told American Handgunner magazine. "To my chagrin, I could not find a pistol with the quality of construction and features in design which I felt were appropriate for a carry gun. Therefore, I decided to design an ultra-compact 9-mm. pistol that I could carry." [Quoted in "Rev. Moon son made gun" "New York Daily News" July 27, 2003.] By his junior year of college, he decided to design one himself. [Massad Ayoob, "The Rise of the House of Kahr", "American Handgunner" (November/December 2001) pp. 58-67.]

"I spent the summer and much of my senior year designing the mechanical layout of the pistol and prototyping various design concepts," he told Handgunner.

He received a B.A. from Harvard University in economics in 1992. [Massad Ayoob, "The Rise of the House of Kahr", "American Handgunner" (November/December 2001) pp. 58-67.]

Founding Kahr Arms

In 1993, Moon founded Kahr Arms; the name is a made-up word that suggestive of two of his affections, for German engineering and fast cars. “I wanted to create the ultimate line of concealable pistols,” he said. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007] ]

Kahr Arms is owned by the Saeilo Corporation, a subsidiary of the Unification Church International holding company. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007] ] Moon reports that he borrowed money from his father to found the company. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007] ]

Kook Jin Moon designed the original Kahr pistol himself.

The design of Kahr’s line of pocket rockets is complicated, but basically it involves five patented methods of arranging the gun’s internal parts, reducing empty space and allowing the gun to contract in just the right places, while maintaining enough room for a larger-caliber bullet. Because of all the patents, it is difficult, if not impossible, for others to replicate its design. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/careers/features/2007/09/17/Unification-Church "Money, Guns, and God" by Christopher S. Stewart, "Conde Nast Portfolio", October 2007] ]

Building the company

Kahr Arms specializes in compact and mid-size semi-automatic pistols chambered for popular cartridges including 9 mm Luger Parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Kahr pistols feature polymer or stainless steel frames, single-stack magazines, and double-action striker firing actions. Its headquarters is in Blauvelt, New York and it has a manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In 1999, Kahr Arms bought Auto-Ordnance Corp., the maker of Thompson submachine guns. Now Kahr manufactures Auto-Ordnance's line of semi-automatic weapons, including a long-barreled, semi-automatic version of the famous "Tommy Gun". The Auto-Ordnance Corporation that Kahr Arms purchased was not the original Auto Ordnance started by General John T. Thompson and his investors.

In 1994 the U.S. federal government banned manufacture and importation of pistol magazines with more than a 10-round capacity. These were the so called "hi-capacity" magazines, which again became legal to manufacture and import in most states in September 2004, after the relevant federal law expired. This change in federal law rendered many staggered-magazine pistol models (commonly with magazine capacities of 15 or more rounds) less popular in the American market. They were now overly large in light of their newly mandated 10-shot limit. [cite news |first=John |last=Mintz |coauthors= |publisher=The Washington Post |date=1999-03-10 |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/march99/moon10.htm |title=Church's Pistol Firm Exploits a Niche |accessdate=2007-09-22 ] Kahr was at the forefront at offering small well-made pistols that fire eight or fewer relatively large 9mm and .40-caliber bullets. Their single-stack magazines enable a slender compact pistol that has proved popular with the buying public.

References