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I attempted to search the archives on the matter and didn't find much, so I present it to you all here.

How does resolving a ranged attack versus a held or carried object work? Two instances came up recently in our weekly game, both dealing with the party Gunslinger. The first time he was making a long shot with his musket against the BBEG while he was running away, attempting to destroy one of the large bronze keys the evil man wore on his belt. The gunslinger wasn't in range to make his touch attack. The rules for damaging objects notes that ranged attacks only deal half damage, but not how the attack is resolved.

The second encounter involved the gunslinger squaring off with a man wearing a tower shield. The man kept aligning the tower shield as per its ability to the edge facing the gunslinger, giving himself total cover. The gunslinger wanted then to attack and destroy the shield, this time firing from within his touch attack range. How is this attack resolved? And would it be resolved any differently if the gunslinger wanted to plain out attack the shield while it was being wielded.

My apologies if this has been asked before(I can only imagine it has), but digging through the archives, I only found this Designer note that seemed to answer my question. However, it is from the playtest.

This pistol has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be fired independently as a separate action, or both can be shot at once with the same action.

If both barrels are shot at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the pistol becomes wildly inaccurate, imparting a –4 penalty on each shot.

1. The designer clarification in that thread indicated the idea of two rolls per attack, one for each barrel. Has this been errata'd or updated, or is this still true?

2. Unlike say Rapid Shot, firing both barrels does not indicate that the -4 would apply to all shots fired in the same Full Attack action. Where Rapid shot specifically says "All of your attack rolls take a –2 penalty when using Rapid Shot.", the text on the Double Barreled Pistol only says "If both barrels are shot at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the pistol becomes wildly inaccurate, imparting a –4 penalty on each shot." Does this mean that if making a full attack, only the two barrels firing at the same time are at that -4?

Or, in game terms, say a Gunslinger has a BAB of +6/+1. Would firing both barrels on the first attack make his routine +2/+2/+1, or would the -4 apply to all attacks to make it +2/+2/-3.

So let me be sure I have this straight. If you are a 2nd-level Magus, you can make a weapon attack with Spellstrike and discharge a spell while getting full weapon damage, then make ANOTHER weapon attack using Spell Combat? The only penalty being the -2 to hit?

That seems crazy imbalanced to me, a 2nd level fighter is NOWHERE near that capability as far as multiple attacks and damage dealt, and if a DM turned that on the players they'd be screaming FOUL!
I can see where you could use Spell Combat and Spellstrike to make the touch attack through the weapon and cast a spell with the off-hand using the penalties for Spell Combat, but this gives a Magus, a 2ND level Magus, the ability to basically perform 3 standard actions in a round without having to take any feats to do so. Please clarify...

I'll try to go through the order of events, assuming a Magus starts beside his target. We'll use the same stats as in the example above for weapon damage, etc.

1. Declare Spell Combat(Full Round action).
2. Make concentration check to cast Touch range spell defensively(Shocking Grasp, for example).

3a. If the Magus fails the check, the spell fails and the Magus cannot make a either a touch attack or a Spellstrike attack. GoTo 6
3b. If the Magus makes the check, the Magus can then make either a melee touch attack or a Spellstrike attack.

4. Assuming the Magus chooses to Spellstrike, he then makes a melee attack using his weapon at a -2(due to spell combat).

5a. If the Magus hits on his attack, the enemy is dealt both weapon damage(1d8+1) as well as being affected by the spell(damage, effects, etc). Goto 6
5b. If the Magus misses on his attack, the enemy is not affected by the spell and the spell charge is held. Goto 7

6. As part of Spell combat, the Magus is able to make a second attack at a -2 to hit. If he hits, he'll do normal weapon damage(1d8+1). END

7. As part of Spell combat, the Magus is able to make a second attack at a -2 to hit.
8a. If he hits, he'll do both normal weapon damage(1d8+1) as well as expend the charge on his held spell(Damage, effects, etc).
8b. If he misses, he won't do any weapon damage to the enemy but will still have the charge of his spell. END

Boiled down, you could interpret the Magus as getting a full 3 different standard actions in a single turn(Cast Spell, Attack, Attack).