Yes: http://www.torhead.com/items/catg/1/subcatg/3/aim/gt/0/and Troopers use them.

Zam used a sniper rifle to shoot down the probe Obi-wan was riding but she used a pistol while in the close quarters of the club, iirc.

I support this thread.

AFAIK, Republic Trooper Vanguards use Blaster Rifles and offhand Shields at the same time, therefore giving a Powertech a rifle should not take away their shields. Troopers and Bounty Hunters, skill for skill, are exactly the same. I won't even go into how much that saddens me.

To those of you who say, "If you're using your pistol, you're doing it wrong," you clearly don't understand. The problem isn't with mechanics, it's with principle. It's about consistency within the Star Wars universe. A Bounty Hunter isn't some class that shoots rockets and uses flamethrowers. From the first introduction into the world of Bounty Hunters in the Empire Strikes Back, we see that they are a wildly varied bunch that come from all walks of life. Consisting of all kinds of droids and aliens; there is no real definition that any of these characters fit. The weapons a bounty hunter uses define their character. The way they appear and the weapons they hold speak more volumes about them than the few lines of dialog they speak. And not just in the original trilogy, Zam Wessel preferred to stay out of the action and her proclivities are exemplified in her use of probes and a sniper rifle to deal her blows. By not allowing a player to choose their weapon, we are not allowed to define our characters. We are not creating a character of our own, we're just playing a character that Bioware designed. To me, creating our own characters is what an RPG is all about.

I was just looking through the official SWTOR wallpapers on this site: http://www.swtor.com/media/wallpapers/bounty-hunter-wallpaper-0 http://www.swtor.com/media/wallpapers/bounty-hunter-wallpaper Is the poster child for the bounty hunter class holding a rifle? Whatever it is, it's definitely not a pistol. Such false promises...

Bounty Hunters without Rifles is an utter travesty against all Star Wars kind in my opinion. It's just wrong. It is clearly a bug. It must be. No one could make a decision this poor and let it ship with the game. Bounty Hunter: Weapon of Choice Boba Fett: BlasTech EE-3 Carbine Rifle 4-LOM: BlasTech W-90 Concussion Rifle Bossk: Relby-v10 Micro Grenade Launcher Dengar: Valken-38 Blaster Rifle IG-88: BlasTech DLT-20A Blaster Rifle Zuckuss: GRS-1 Snare Rifle Considering these are the only bounty hunters who count, I find the inability to use rifles to be downright offensive.