I used to work at Gunstore in Phx AZ for a bit in '97, in '98 and '99. One day the manager overheard me and another salesmen give our opinion of the Hi-Point to a customer when asked. From me that opinion consisted of "It's a piece of junk, you'd be better off going across the street to Home Depot and buying a brick. At least that might work if you have to throw it at someone".
I mentally lumped in Hi Point with Loricin, Bryco, Jennings and other cheap pistols that I'd actually shot and in a couple cases .. owned. Trading guns around that cost a couple twenties used. I'd shot all those other ones (when they worked). So I naturally assumed that the Hi Points were exactly the same.
Apparently the manager didn't like that opinion all that much. When confronted about it neither of us backed down, we weren't going to lie and sell people junk guns when their lives might depend on those guns. The next morning st the morning meeting he asked all the employees what their opinion of the Hi-Point was. To a man everyone stated that they thought that it was a total piece of crap.
The manager organized a shoot where all the sales staff took a Hi Point 9mil that we'd taken in trade out shooting. We used the bullets that we kept in back where shoplifters had stolen a handful of ammo and put it in their pocket. We regularly filled up the boxes that we found when we checked everything out in the morning.
They'd been talking about doing an employee day, so that was the subject matter for the day.
Each of us took turns shooting it. No malfunctions the entire time from anyone. The whole thing was top heavy. The trigger was horrible, the reset long. I had to take my finger completely off the trigger in order to get it to reset and there was no audible or tactile 'click' when it reset, but it did in fact work.
So our collective opinion became 'junk that actually works'.
We did actually stock Loricins, Jennings, Bryco's, Davis and other cheap Ring of Fire pistols in the store. Not many, but we carried them. When we sold them it wasn't because any of the sales staff was pushing them except for one assistant manager who was bucking for manager who was without any scruples whatsoever. Most of us just steered customers away from those towards something else that worked, police trade in S&W 38's and .357's, various Hungarian FEG models, Makarov's, Ruger 95's and S&W Sigma's (when they were on sale) and occasionally after that shoot even Hi-Points.
The Jennings, Davis, Loricin, Bryco and Phoenix pistols weren't so much dangerous to the shooter (unless the owner was involved in a violent confrontation and he/she suddenly had an inoperable pistol) as they would just quit suddenly working because some small part broke rendering the pistol inoperable. Or they just were never really anything but a single shot pistol to begin with. We never had a Ring of Fire pistol blow up on a customer, but we sent a fair number back.
Hi Point is a bit different than those. I turned out to be wrong in that case. I never gave an opinion on a gun that I hadn't shot either.
After shooting one I still continued to steer customers towards the used pistol counter (I.E. P85 and 89, S&W Sigma) towards the former Com-Bloc pistols (I.E. FEG and Makarov's) and the Military Surplus pistols (CZ-52's, Tokarevs, CZ-27's and French Walther P-38's) if they were strapped for cash and didn't really know what they wanted. However if their budget meant that they were going to end up getting a Ring of Fire pistol I'd always pull the Hi Points out first.
