This is all pulled from an interesting post here on Reddit. Basically Bungie's Sandbox Designer, the man responsible for the 2.0 weapon balance changes was interviewed about the changes and their impact on Destiny. Here is some of the information from that interview.

• We should expect more frequent balance updates moving forward. *"Internally at the studio that's something the sandbox team is committed to. Being more regular with our updates."
• There was no intention to nerf hand cannons, or eliminate them from the meta.
• CR: Are shotguns overpowered? Jon: Yes.“That’s something we’re going to be looking at closely. Really soon, actually.”
• Trials of Osiris provided an immense amount of information when it came to the metagame and balance. The highly competitive game mode will continue be referenced when considering changes.
• There was a conscious effort to slow Time to Kill in the 2.0 balance patch.
• The higher amount of flinch is intentional: Jon sees flinch as a good tool for someone to keep a pesky sniper at bay at least for long enough to escape. “I’m happy with where it is, but it’s not perfect.”

The biggest thing Jon explains is what goes into Range, Accuracy, Target Acquisiton, and Aim Assist. He reveals that all of these make up Bungie’s “secret sauce” when it comes to making a shooter that feels great.

• In 2.0, the “range” stat means more than ever. Range directly applies to accuracy and target acquisition.

  “If your range is higher, your aim assist is gonna be better.”

*Luke Smith recently explained in an interview that sometimes, a certain weapon type “might have its day.” Though the balance was largely out of whack, it’s not unlikely that we might see certain weapons dominate for a time in the future. Jon agreed with this concept, explaining that a theoretical “perfect balance” would get stale, and developing eras or seasons would keep the Crucible exciting.

As I read through the comments I saw one of the best balance idea's for a weapon class in Destiny and also wanted to post that to see what you guys thought since it seemed so well thought out, good or bad. Here it is from user Pwadigy.

"Decrease mobility with a shotgun. Massive OHKO ranges are fine. But being able to slide 7m into that OHKO range, and sprint into it is not. A lot of shotgun kills occur well before maximum OHKO range, and it's because the real problem with shotguns is that they don't penalize you for simply running forward. Guardians can close about 5m per second, and a slide is a burst motion of about 5-7m in a fraction of a second. A guardian firing shot at a shotgunner could reasonably be expected to achieve a .90 second kill-time with the average gun (again, this is assuming every shot is perfectly placed, this almost never happens at such close-range). In that amount of time, the shotgunner could have sprinted 2-3m, and slided another 5-7m. Our guardian, however, could have only backed-up by about 1-2m. Effectively, the OHKO range of the shotgun is extended by 8-9m. This is practically the same as the actual OHKO range.

Now, if we imagine drawing a circle around a shotgunner with a radius equal to the shotgun range, then we can effectively mark the total amount of area that a shotgunner can kill at will. Now, imagine doubling that radius. What results its a squared total area. this is basically the total area at which a player has to run away from a shotgunner, or risk being killed no matter how well they shoot, and no matter how perfectly they move. In a sense, the shotgunner controls this entire area simply by having a shotgun equipped. Now, let's conservatively put shotgun OHKO range at 8m. Slide distance at 5m, and 2m of movement over .90 seconds. We have 15m of OHKO range. square this and multiply it by pi, and you get 706m sq. The average map is about 100 by 70. The average map also has winding corridors, making the problem worse. Point is, a full team of shotgunners could at any point have 2/3's of the map in OHKO range just by having a shotgun equipped.

Now, let's cut the range by 25%. 8m OHKO range becomes 6m. add movement and you're back to 13m. 530m² threat area. Still covers a large portion of the map simply for equipping a shotgun. Now, instead, cut slide-distance in half while a shotgun is equipped, and cut movement speed to two-thirds. Greatly decrease draw-speed to keep plays from simply quick-drawing shotguns. You're down to 10m. 300m² kill area. This is how shotguns work in most games. You don't chase people with them. You catch them when they are pushing too aggressively. Shotguns should be defensive.

Too many players have the instinct of chasing a target instead of pulling out a primary and winning a gun-fight. This is because the game-mechanics reward this kind of play. Until this changes, shotguns will be the most used weapon, as players will always opt to chase a target rather than take cover and engage in a fire-fight.

As is, we have half of the players in a match at any given time playing the game like a tactical shooter, with heavy emphasis on positioning and accuracy. And, we have the other half completely invalidating that by running directly at the nearest red. Discourage chasing targets and running circles around a map by making the running part less viable, not the shotgunning itself. If a player feels like he's suddenly in a swamp pulling out a shotgun, he'll be less likely to have the shotgun equipped all-game, and more likely to use it defensively, and tactically."