For anyone having this problem (as I did, 2021), the solution was to download the WAACF Bashed Patch and place it at the bottom of my load order. This resolves conflicts from most mods that add armor or weapons. For example, in my case I had several mods that all wanted to add weapon of the same ID, so when I tried to equip it the game didn't know what to do and just shut down. This fixed it for me. Nine years later I hope this helps someone.