Apparently Girsan "gold plated" pistols are NOT gold plated and are actually titanium nitride.

I figured I'd ask them because a lot of vendors list their "Deluxe" editions as "gold plated" but on the EAA website it states that its "gold finish". I contacted them and they confirmed that they are not gold plated.

Yes, actual gold plate is too soft to actually use on a gun you want to shoot, Magnum research makes a gold plated desert eagle as an option but warns you not to shoot it due to the finish being too fragile for anything more than a decoration.