Until recently, the 40 Smith & Wesson was one of America's favorite pistol cartridges, but now it is a footnote.

Even Smith & Wesson, which introduced the 40 S&W in 1990, lists only one semiautomatic handgun for the cartridge on its website, and it is only available at Academy Sports and Outdoors. Glock's 23 is its only 40 S&W option. Glock calls it 40SW because it doesn't want to advertise its competition. H&K makes five models, and Fabrique Nationale, which has the coolest website, makes none.

Handgunners who want to buy in a store are limited to 9mm, 380 ACP and 45 ACP.

Why did the 40 S&W fall so far out of fashion? Jeb Burnett of Roland, owner of ARMTAC, said that the 40 S&W was a solution to a problem that did not exist. Whatever the 40 does, the 9mm does just as well.

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