Colt 45 Gold Cup

Answer 1

 You actually think it might normal for a top-of-the-line, high-dollar, target pistol from one of America's major arms houses to, every now and then, rip off a short burst of fire full-auto?

I suspect someone has been doing a little kitchen table gunsmithing on the trigger linkage.

What you have is a seriously dangerous malfunction of your trigger linkage and, in the eyes of the BATF, a fully-automatic arm -- capable of firing more than one shot with a single actuation of the trigger -- in short, a machinegun. Federal agents are totally humorless about this so you are right to not shoot it again till it is repaired.

Take your pistol to a reputable gunsmith to have the trigger repaired. It's well worth the cost of having it made right. The Gold Cup is a fine weapon capable of serving you well for a lifetime be it for competitive target shooting or self defense.