Your CCW had a malfunction... what do you do to regain trust?

The only answer is that any gun that has any kind of hiccup, regardless how minimal, can never be trusted again. In fact, the only way to handle such a gun is to sacrifice it up as a burnt offering. After all, no shooter of any integrity could ever let a gun of such questionable perigee get into the hands of a fellow shooter.
Oh, wait, I forgot I am not a tactical ninja. As pointed out, anything mechanical can fail, and if you are practicing with your carry gun like you should, things wear out. Big thing is, as mentioned above, understanding exactly what happened. Once that is understood, things go from there.
Here is one example of what is a commonly overlooked issue, and that is carry ammo. I get that carry ammo is expensive, but I have seen people at the range who carry the same magazine’s worth for years. You know the drill, unload gun, load up practice rounds, reload carry rounds after practice, etc. well, after a long time of doing this, they decide they better shoot their carry loads and have some kind of issue.

If my car breaks down, my first drive back from the mechanic isn't going to be an out of state road trip. I'd usually like to see that the problem is fixed and the car has at least some record of running smoothly. If a car becomes too problematic or repeatedly breaks down, I sell it. I guess that makes me a 'tactical auto-driver' 🤷‍♂️

In the same vein, if I experience a pistol malfunction my process is a little more thorough than to shoot one more round and declare "I guess it works!".

I'd need a bit more in order to feel confident I can defend myself from evil. Generally I'd like to see the gun run at least a box of FMJ and then perhaps a couple magazines of whatever I'm using for self defense without any more hiccups.

@brnwlms mentioned finding out the problem and then 'things go from there'. Can you (or anyone else, of course) tell me more about your 'things go from there' process? Suppose you replace a part? How much testing might that new part need before you're satisfied it's set to go? Are there any parts that you feel would need or warrant more thorough testing than others?



Me, personally, I retire a gun from self defense consideration when testing and verifying it's reliability becomes more expensive than buying a new gun that just works. Only guns that really fall into this category are my Taurus TCP and Beretta Bobcat. Those would never find their way back into my holster. Unsurprisingly, these are both micro pistols known for being a bit sensitive. For me, it wasn't a weird sacrificial ritual - just economic considerations.