Whenever I switch to any weapon other than the laser, I seem to lose the ability to use the laser. Pressing 1 to swtich back to laser after selecting another weapon does nothing. I seem to be able to switch between other weapons but I can never switch back to the laser.

This happens in the Steam version so I bought the GoG version hoping it would be different but it isn't.

Did you wait long enough for them to equip? If you did then that's a new one on me.