Phasers - suicide by accident

It makes sense to hurt yourself with bouncers if they bounce off a wall and hit you, but phasers? I have often seen people suicide with phasers while hunting me, and I occassionally make the mistake myself. This is non-intuitive behavior for the phaser and is confusing for new players.

Reproducing the problem:
1) Point your ship directly up and hold down the firing button. Continue firing throughout this test.
2) Press and hold the S key for 2 seconds.
3) Quickly switch from S to W.
The result, you catch up to your own phaser fire and shoot yourself several times.