Shuriken pistols were rubbish in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader tabletop war game.

White Dwarf 97 (1988) ☠

Shuriken pistols were introduced in White Dwarf 97 shortly after Rogue Trader was released.

Illustration
Shuriken Pistol
Short Range Long Range To Hit Short To Hit Long Str. Dam.
0-6" 6-12" +2 3 1
Save Modifier C H S F Area Tech
-1 X 7

Shuriken pistols are expensive to manufacture and maintain. The only race to that carries them in any number are the Eldar. Rather than amend the generation charts, any Eldar may substitute a naturally generated bolt pistol for a shuriken pistol.

-Rick Priestly, White Dwarf 97

White Dwarf Presents Warhammer 40,000 The Book of the Astronomicon (1988) ☠

The first 40K supplement revised some points costs. The shuriken catapult moved from 2pts to 10pts, almost double the cost of a plasma gun. The shuriken pistol was priced at 5pts. There were no changes to the capabilities of either weapon.

For reference, a bolt pistol is 1.5pts in Rogue Trader. At strength 4 and range 16" bolt pistols were superior to shuriken pistols.

Why? ☠

This appears to be partly a roleplaying thing. Shuriken weapons are rare and expensive in-universe, therefore they must cost lots of points.

Their limited effectiveness was offset by the troops that wielded them. Eldar had relatively high stats (WS4; BS4) and the best initiative (I6) of any troop type.

Warhammer 40,000 Battle Manual (1992) ☠

The shuriken pistol got an upgrade to its save modifier in the Battle Manual when the combat rules were rewritten.

Short Range Long Range To Hit Short To Hit Long Str. Dam.
0-6" 6-12" +2 3 1
Save Modifier Special
-2 Close Combat

Shuriken pistols reverted to bolt pistol stats in 2nd edition and stayed that way in 3rd edition.