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Now here's the funny thing, the Soviet Union did have a nearly all ceramic gun designed to get past metal detectors. The actual metal components were contained inside of an everyday pen. Now if I remember correctly the gun was a single shot piece that was more dangerous to the user than it was to the target.

I told myself "I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it." But guess what, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. So here's my take on the caliber wars:
9mm: Mid-sized pistol round, not the ideal solution for stopping someone/something.
.40S&W: slightly larger pistol round, not the ideal solution for stopping someone/something.
.45ACP: Even bigger pistol round, not the ideal solution for stopping someone/something.

There are plenty of graves out there because the corpse they hold was shot with a 9mm. Same goes for a .45ACP, but the problem is that a handgun is not really up to the task and a rifle is will always be better at stopping and/or killing folks than a handgun. If I am in a fight for my life you can bet that I will want a rifle with a rifle cartridge instead of something that uses a handgun cartridge. In my opinion, choose what you want and don't buy into all the Internet Commando nonsense that you see. I usually carry a .45ACP, although I have been known to carry a .40S&W and a 9mm and I really don't feel under gunned with any of them. And for the record shot placement is always critical, especially with handguns.

For me the .40 is a compromise cartridge. You compromise some size from the .45 for more capacity than the .45 while still performing better than a 9mm although with less capacity than said 9mm. I own two handguns chambered for the .40S&W and have carried both, although my .45s see much more carry time than the .40S&W guns.