« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2009, 10:54:54 PM »
My understanding of the .40 origins was that it is a smaller version of the 10 mm. Some police departments were going to the 10 but some of the decision makers in those departments objected to the recoil of the 10; so the .40 was created. I don't know if it that is true but it sounded plausible.... 
The recoil of the
awesome 10MM was too much for America's Finest so they down-loaded it and called the WEAK version "the FBI load". Since the case capacity wasn't be fully utilized they SHORTened it. That's how the .40 Short&Weak came to be.

Logged
""It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency." - George Washington. Letter to Alexander Hamilton, Friday, May 02, 1783
THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE - A. E. van Vogt, The Weapon Shops of Isher