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Or is there a mechanical way it can jam/misfire?
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Several, actually. The most common, I'd guess, would be if the weapon's timing was off (a serious problem requiring extensive repairs) or if parts were worne enough to cause them not to engage properly.
The thing is, when an autoloader malfunctions, the problem can almost always be cured with a tap-rack-bang drill or by simply recocking the pistol. Additionally, autoloaders are now extremely reliable weapons, or else they wouldn't be universal military arms.
Bear in mind that an autoloader is actually very, very simple. Most autoloaders have fewer moving parts (connected with the operation of the gun: I'm leaving aside controls like safeties and cylinder latches) than revolvers, and those parts are fairly large and easy to work with. Autoloaders can (usually) be torn down for maintainence, and repairs/upgrades are an at-home job.
By contrast, the only two revolvers to ever see long military careers are the British Webley and the Russian M1895. Both were so ruggedly simple that they could be fixed with bubblegum and a rock.
Most revolvers, on the other hand, are very precise instruments with lots of moving parts. Those parts are held in place mostly just by their position in the gun vis-a-vis the other parts they're next to. Open up a wheelgun sometime: it's like a mechanical watch. And just like a watch, all it takes to tie the gun up more-or-less permanently is for one of those parts to break, bend, or get knocked out of place.
But the bottom line is that automatic pistols no longer suffer from any significant deficiancy in reliability and have not for many, many years. Automatics became near-universal military arms before WWII, and most major powers had at least partially adopted an autoloading design by the time of WWI. Bear in mind that in 1911, rifles were still being issued with magazine cutoffs because they were intended for use primarily as single-shot weapons: the magazine was to be held in reserve for emergencies. The world's militaries were not terribly interested in fast reloads -or- high ammo capacity (with the burgeoning exception of the British, thanks to the Boer War) at the time. Autopistols caught on with militaries because they were easier for an average trooper to maintain and much easier to repair/clear in the event of a stoppage or catastrophic malfunction.
Essentially the only thing which will cause a modern autoloader to malfunction are bad ammo, bad technique (ie "limp wristing"), or the grossest possible lack of maintainence.