Gun Mage question.

[Snowsong]

I've always taken it as having an insurance policy against the moment when you eventually either roll that 1 on an attack roll or the enemy rolls a 20. Both cause your gun to gain the broken condition and gun mages dont have a way to clear that without taking amateur gunner or levels in a class that let's you do it in combat. Cause if you roll one of those when it's already broken, the gun explodes. 

So it's something of a risk reward decision. Do you play it safe and have a backup Sapphire Gun, or will you take the risk and have just one, but get the increased crit modifier?