You chose a Glock chambered in .40 S&W. There is nothing wrong with this at all, many people make the same choice, but I want to provide an out of character perspective for you to decide if you'd like that to transfer to in-character or not. Many people select the .40 S&W over the 9mm or the .45 because they believe it is the perfect middle ground between the power of the .45 and the low recoil and magazine capacity of the 9mm. This is strictly my opinion, but I think you might find it to be a very popular one among the firearms community- the .40 S&W is the worst of both worlds, rather than the best.
The .40 S&W was actually invented as the 10mm back in the late 1980's. After a bank robbery in 1986 in which the FBI ended up losing several agents, they decided that their standard-issue 9mm and .380 pistols were not powerful enough, so they commissioned a new round to be designed that would provide at least 500 psi of force on target impact. And so Sig Sauer developer their Sig P220 chambered in 10mm and it proved to be more than capable. It quickly became apparent, however, that the round was actually too powerful. Not only was the recoil difficult for smaller agents to manage, the size of the round meant that grips were wider to accommodate a magazine filled with larger bullets, so smaller hands had an even more difficult time trying to hang on. In addition, the powerful round was actually beginning to destroy the firearms that were chambered for it. Frames and barrels were found to need replaced at a rate that was unacceptable for standard wear and tear.
So, Smith & Wesson came along and they took the 10mm and trimmed the casing down so it was carrying less powder. The bullet slowed down, the power behind it decreased, and it became much easier to manage. The FBI and several other police agencies began purchasing pistols chambered in the new caliber quickly.
Fast forward to the modern era, and our metallurgy and manufacturing techniques have advanced considerably. No longer is the 10mm too powerful for the barrels and frames it operates in. Still, it is a very powerful round, and because it was not adopted as originally expected by the FBI, it did not gain the popularity that the primary 3 calibers (.45 ACP, 9x19mm Luger/Parabellum, and .40 Smith & Wesson), and so the price remained much higher due to lack of demand.
As technology advanced in the realm of durability of firearms, so too did it grow in the realm of ballistics. Over-pressurized ammunition (known as +P and +P+) made it was on to the market, as well as new projectile designs that produced significantly more devastating soft-tissue damage to a living target. This mean that a +P 9mm jacketed hollow point (JHP) round was capable of delivering even more powerful terminal performance on target than the original .40 S&W. Now, the .40 S&W was also able to receive the same upgrade in technology, but with the 9mm capable of doing as much or more damage than the initial offering of the .40, many shooters began to see the benefits of the 9mm's lower-recoil (much easier to get back on target for follow-up shots) and extended magazine capacity (in some magazines, 19 rounds vs 14). And so, gradually many professional shooters and law-enforcement began to transition back to the 9mm, except on the military side, where many service members still prefer something chambered in .45 ACP over 9mm or .40 S&W because the Geneva Conventions mandate that they have to use non-expanding ammunition (full metal jacket, or FMJ), because of the tendency for hollow-point ammo to cause more devastating wounds that would be considered inhumane.
Anyway, what that whole long story means, is that I fucking hate the .40 S&W and I will deter anyone who ever comes to me when they're thinking about buying a pistol thinking it might be a good option. If you have to choose, choose either the 9mm or the .45. Screw the middle ground. Or, if you're ballsy enough, just go straight 10mm. If you can handle the recoil on a .45, you can probably handle the 10mm, and you will have an absolute cannon in your holster. If you want to stick with Glock- the 19 is popular for carrying, though not as large as the 17, and both are chambered in 9mm. The 20, the 40, and the 26 are chambered in 10mm, though the 26 is much smaller, and the 40 has a six-inch barrel vs the 20's five-inch. In .45, the Glock 21 is a popular full-size offering.
Faithy
