Obviously there are issues with year 2, but the comparison to year one weapons isn't fair. I rocked the heck out of last word in year one not because it was OP but because it was a amazingly fun gun. Just recall in year one we had:

Slow firing Autorifles dominate (Suros), then had them nerfed. Then we had hand cannons/scout rifles dominate. Vision of Confluence was everywhere, and Fatebringer, Word of Crota, The Devil You Know, Chance, were all viable and common weapons. Shotguns didn't start do dominate until fusion rifles were taken down a notch. Snipers did dominate when you could use armor piercing rounds to shoot through cover.

Not sure I follow... are you saying that there were more balance issues in year 1?

When I read your first 2 paragraphs, my first thought is "I wish I had a year 2 weapon that I enjoyed as much as any one of the year 1 weapons you just listed". I agree that Bungie struggled to find a good PvP balance with their weapons sandbox in year 1, but to me the weapons were just more fun and satisfying to use. I think a big part of my problem with the year 2 weapons (particularly primaries) is that Bungie has made many of them feel less reliable than their year 1 counterparts. When I fire a year 2 hand cannon, the bullet just doesn't consistently land where I expect it to. Same with Pulse Rifles. Unless you have an amazing roll, Auto Rifles are a struggle to control (side bar: am I the only one who wishes Bungie would adopt a Halo Assault Rifle approach to Auto Rifles in Destiny? Keep them accurate when fired in short bursts, increase the bullet spread when fired continuously, but remove most of the recoil so you can actually aim the thing where you'd like to aim it?)

Year two has a much larger variety of perks and ways to change up gun behavior. We have more variety in the combination of those perks with different gun manufacturers getting different column options.

So this is where I strongly disagree. You are of course correct in a literal sense (we literally do have more available perks now than we did in year 1), but I find the majority of the new perks are borderline useless (this goes for year 2 armor perks as well). Most of them are either too specific to matter or flat out undesirable. When you combine an array of underwhelming perks with weapons that have such mediocre base performance stats, it creates a situation where most players (at least high level players) end up wanting/using the same handful of perks on every weapon, just to make them decently effective. Want to use an Auto Rifle in the crucible? Better hope you have an AR with counterbalance. Scout Rifle in PvE? Once you've used a SR with Firefly, it feels painful to go back to anything else because they need the extra stopping power. Pulse Rifle in PvP? Again, max stability is a must, anything else is throwaway. Hand Cannon in PvE? You're going to have a real tough time unless you have reload perks AND reload/ammo perks on your armor.

This is a far cry from year 1, where the wider range of available weapon archetypes allowed for a more varied range of perk combos that were actually effective. I could go into PvE with my Ghallion's Demise with Firefly and tear fools up thanks to it's slow-firing-yet-hard-hitting stats. But I could also take my explosive rounds B-Line Trauma into nightfalls or raids and do great with its high RoF wall-of-death damage output. Choices like that are largely missing from year 2.

The problem in year 2 is mainly that the the low skill weapons also have the best time to kill. Fast auto/pulse and last word are the lowest TTK, and they don't require the precision head shots that would make scouts/HCs comparable. The reason HCs started to dominate in Year 1 was that you could get those 2 body 1 headshot for the kill fairly easily. Now in year 2 the range reduction makes half your bullets vanish and makes it too hard to get those kills when you are getting sprayed by DoP/Armenius.

I think that is a very good point.

Likewise Snipers scope too fast and can take out people at even close ranges. Shotguns can compete in close, but fusions charge time just kills them.

Just want to say that I think Fusion Rifles are actually a bit under-appreciated. I've been taking one into Trials quite a bit over the past few months, and I do very well with it. Although I do find them tougher to use in 6v6 gametypes where you have less opportunity to position yourself correctly without being flanked.

I think you could probably make the current crucible meta work well if:

1. HCs gave far more flinch, and suffered less flinch, per hit, slight increase in range.
2. Reduction in range for the fast auto rifle archetype. Larger mags for the slow firing ones.
3. Longer scope in time for snipers, suffer more flinch when scoped in.
4. Fusion rifles fire more bolts per burst, slight improvements to range.

I like the sound of all these changes. I would add a greater zoom distance to snipers, making it tougher to quick-scope enemies at close-mid range.

I would also like to see Omalon guns with perks that interact with the characters's grenades/melee/super/jump. Suros with more perks that enhance accuracy and stability, and Hakke with more ammo/pickup and bullet hit effects. Just to really broaden the selection more.

I would also love to see the various venders do an arms day thing like banshee. Since we have so many perks you really need some rerolling or high drop rates to get rolls people would consider.

I like this idea a lot as well :)