You need to take a step back & examine your own abilities. The reason why you see people killing successfully with a hand cannon is because with a hand cannon you have to be accurate as opposed to people who have shit aim spamming/pre-firing mida or an autorifle to make up for their lack of discipline.
If hand cannons are nerfed because of people who aren't trying to look at how they could be improving their own combat skills, then what you will see is the player who was using their hand cannon accurately will then pick up an autorifle, a scout rifle or maybe a goddamn rock... And they will kill you with it just as effectively.
{Edit} I may be overreacting and stuff. It's the post nerf stress disorder kicking in.
[spoiler] I'm an average pvper who used to suck. Instead of crying for nerfs, I recorded a few of my bad games & examined who I could improved, then I acted on that. I focused on MY weaknesses.. Not my opponents strengths [/spoiler]
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Who complained about hand cannons exactly? Because they're in a pretty small minority.