This is an interview from E3 2004 with Peter Parsons from Bungie! (this is 15 minutes long)
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/xboxtv/default.htm?t=4809&v=84743
I hope they keep the pistol ;( but then again they may have removed it for a good reason and people will use more of a variety of guns and not just the single shot pistol all the time (it isn’t claimed to be taken out, it is a secret still but im being paranoid)
