The first brand new handgun I ever purchased was a Raven .25 ACP. The reason was simple: I turned 21 that day and wanted to exercise my right to buy a handgun: and of course that was all I could afford. I think it was $50. I have told this story before, but I was very much "into" guns and shooting since early childhood but I didn't know anything about stuff like .25 ACP handguns. I knew it wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but I had never read a thread like this telling me they were junk. So, I went blissfully on my way and every payday I would buy a box of factory ammo and shoot it. I even had a holster for it. I was attending the community college on the GI Bill at the time (worked part time washing dishes and was in the Army National Guard, so I had a little money) and a few guys that I went to school with suggested we go out shooting. So, we go out somewhere and there is a split rail fence and I started setting empty shotgun shell hulls up on the fence to shoot at. One of the guys there said something to the effect: what are you doing ? You can't hit those with that .25........ I said, yes I can (I knew I could, again, I shot this gun a fair amount). He said, I will bet you $20 that you can't hit five of those in a row. I took the bet and did it with no problem. I felt guilty for days because I took such a vast sum of money from somebody in a bet that I knew I would win.
Like a number of people have posted: they might not be great quality, and they might not be something to brag about, but they work and if you have good young eyes and no preconceived notions about them, they can actually shoot pretty good.
I don't own any Hi-Point handguns, but I used to own a Hi-Point 9mm Carbine. I shot it A LOT for several years and I was quite pleased with it. It functioned fine and shot more than good enough for what I was doing with it. I was plinking and shooting jack rabbits with it, I wasn't trying to make the US Olympic Team. I have however shot a few Hi-Point handguns and have a fair amount of experience with the Hi-Point company itself. A buddy of mine owns two Hi-Point handguns. He bought them just for the heck of it: he owns lots of fairly high end guns. I have shot his Hi-Point .45 ACP pistol several hundred times, on paper and I was more than satisfied with it. It functions flawlessly. I easily out-shot everybody else there with it (I need to point out that I shoot several times a week and have done so for most of my life). Again, would I take this to Camp Perry ? No. Would I buy this if I was intending to seriously compete in IPSC ? No. Would I trust my life to it ? Yes.
As far as the company itself: I used to live in a relatively small town and hung out a lot in the local gun store. The owner was a friend and all of the rest of my friends hung out in there as well. He sold A LOT of Hi-Points. Both carbines and pistols. When he had a problem, he called them and they did whatever was nessessary to correct the problem. They sometimes over-nighted him parts. They sometimes walked him through installing the parts over the phone. And once, he had a problem with a carbine and the owner of the company flew there to fix it. Seriously, the owner of the company flew there to fix it (I should point out that I lived near a very popular resort city and the owner probably took a trip there and wrote it off but he still came there and fixed the freakin gun).
Saying that Hi-Points are junk is outing yourself as a snob or someone who doesn't know what it is that they don't know.
As one guy posted earlier, I don't own any Hi-Point firearms at present: But, I have thought about buying one if the price was right strictly in order to mock gun snobs at the range as I out-shoot them.