The point is I wouldn't move the different classes closer to each other. And if melee has ranged weapons, in most cases they are either hybrids (not melee) or are incredibly ineffective with it. And even if archers are ALMOST as good as infantry in melee, they would still run away, due to their much better chances of killing that enemy over range. So whatever melee weapon you give them, it would be used like the knife in Counter Strike: being drawn only to run faster.
I think being almost helpless in melee against pure infantry is an important aspect of balance and class design for archers.
The problem is the game mode, where infantry has (also) to kill archers. Change the game mode to something which involves conquering one or more flags, and the problem of kiting will be gone, because kiting will not help you conquering the flag, and infantry doesn't need to run after archers any more to win the fight.