Tommy Gun's Lone Manufacturer is Attached to Right Wing Gun Cult
Kahr Arms is owned and operated by the son of cult leader Reverend Moon - the only company that currently makes Tommy Guns.
Note: The original version of this piece said that the Thompson Submachine gun was “likely” made by Kahr arms. Kahr Arms does not sell fully automatic firearms. The gun in Tesla’s video is almost certainly one made before the National Firearms Act. [Thanks to Katherine Loreiei for pointing this out]. I’m keeping this post live for transparency.
This week Elon Musk’s promo video for Tesla’s Cybertruck used a fully automatic Tommy Gun to prove the paneling on the vehicle was “bulletproof.” Musk’s fireteam used a fully automatic Thompson submachine gun, which is not a currently manufactured firearm.
The only company that currently makes a semi-auto version of the gun is the Pennsylvania-based Kahr Arms.
The Tommy Gun or Chicago Typewriter is a gun famous or infamous for mass murders by the mob in the 1920’s and 30’s. It was used by American troops in WW1 but fell out of favor by Federal agencies and the public likely due to its cost (currently in the range of $2-3000), weight, connections to gangsters, and the popularity of the AR-15 rifles.
Currently, the firearms only manufacturer is Kahr Arms - the same company that makes the Desert Eagle. Now this is where it gets interesting - Kahr Arms is owned by the son cult leader of Reverend Sun Myung Moon - Justin Moon.
Justin’s brother Sean is the chosen heir of Unification Church’s founder (you may know them as “The Moonies”) and acts as the head of the Pennsylvania Sanctuary Church. Kahr Arms is the main sponsor and funder of their annual “Rod of Iron Festival.”
I’ve covered the festival two times - in 2021 for The Progressive Magazine and just this year for Bucks County Beacon. Both years have seen a cavalcade of the farthest of the far right appearing at this celebration of guns. Speakers have included Great Replacement theory pusher Steve Bannon, Pizzagate-propagator Jack Posobeic and Nazi-linked favorite Sebastian Gorka.
While Justin Moon is quiet and deals more with the business side of things, his brother has begun a rap career with truly vile rabidly anti-trans and often racist, sexist lyrics.
Pastor Moon who leads a following of thousands across the world uses the Rod of Iron festival and his pulpit to share conspiracies that have not only been debunked are long mocked - like the Nazis were secretly gay. It’s a bullshit story that is spread in white supremacist circles to basically say that the “gays are the real Nazis.” It’s a myth that was spread by Dinesh D’Souza in one of this “documentaries” and shared by former President Donald Trump.
Sadly at the Kahr Arms-funded festivals, this sort of madness isn’t even the worst sort of misinformation and flat-earth level lies that are spread. Anti-semitism, via the George Soros conspiracy was a regular talking point of speakers both years that I attended. Former Trump aide and Nazi group awarded Sebastian Gorka spoke about the right wing’s favorite lie - that liberal donor George Soros was a willing participant in the Holocaust. It’s not true, not only because he was 14.
I could go on, but I recommend checking out my previous coverage of this group - including my podcast with a woman who escaped the cult. HERE.
Again - here’s the two stories that I previously wrote/photo’d on this gun-cult in the Bucks County Beacon and in The Progressive Magazine.