This is redundant with the stock pistol - which is 2x more accurate, so you spend much less of your playing time shooting and missing. The first XCOM armor is already good enough to make you safe from pistols.
Further in the game, when you have the second armor, laser pistols are safe to use in cas of mind control, and have actual infinite ammo.
If you want to exploit the experience system, with -40% damage from bullets, Mutons are pretty much immune to pistols/rifles.
In a situation where you have 15+ soldiers and just a couple Mutons, the Mutons are dying a bit to fast even if you have only pistols
Its also nice to be able to reaction fire train on other races when Mutons don't appear.
Good point with the accuracy, I'll increase it.
Sure, you can use laser pistols, but by using this its safe to carry a lot more powerful weapons with you.
--- posts merged - Solarius Scorch ---Version 1.1:
-Slightly decreased clipsize
-Increased price
-Increased accuracy. Still sliiightly less than the stock pistol to maintain some realism, but it makes up for it by:
-Decreased time units cost