I personally feel that melee actually
is too weak, both from a reality standpoint and a mechanics standpoint.
Getting shot sucks, but you're a lot more likely to survive a gunshot wound than you are to survive a solid strike from a katana. Bullets have low mass and high velocity, so they penetrate, but things like swords are high mass and low velocity, so they shred and shear and tear.
Guns have advantages. They have range. They can be modified and take accesories. They can use specialized ammo. They're often small and concealable. And they don't require great personal Strength to make proper use of. This is true both in reality and in the SR system.
Melee already is suboptimal in all those regards - why, then, is it also made less damaging? A light pistol deals 4P + 1 Minimum Net Hit twice, so 10P before staging. In contrast, a normal sword wielded by one of the world's strongest Humans with a strength of 6, deals (6/2) + 3P + 1 Minimum Net Hit, totaling 7P before staging.
This is just absurd. In terms of game systems, there's no reason for a sword to be doing so little damage compared to firearms when it already has countless other detriments. And in terms of reality, if you were forced to receive either two small caliber handgun wounds or one powerful stroke of a sword, your best bet for survival is the bullet wounds.
Changing the damage code to STR + X, or something similar, might be a good first step to take. Working with my previous example, this change would make the sword deal exactly as much combined damage as the two pistol shots while still retaining all the other limitations of a non-ranged weapon. So now the world's strongest natural human swordsman is doing the same amount of damage as a punk with a cheap light pistol (technically sllightly
more because the single sword stroke is only resisted once). That still seems a little off, but it's definitely an improvement.
Moreover, such a change would give players more flexibility in deciding how much Strength to invest in, as they would no longer need to improve it by 2 for each 1 additional damage they might wish to inflict, making non-odd Strength totals attractive. It also allows Agility and finesse focused melee fighters to still do decent damage without having to subtantially invest in their Strength, or rely on Electricity weapons.
It also scales reasonably well, even into the more absurd upper strength values. A troll swordsman with a strength of 12 will be dealing 16P, which, while high, seems within reason. Letting a huge monstrous troll hit you with a sword is gonna hurt, and you should count yourself lucky if you don't just get sliced in half. If that sounds like a bad time to you, then maybe shoot him before he reaches you?

~Umi