IMO, the Hi-Points are fine as a range pistol - they're actually pretty accurate once you get a hang of the trigger - but at least IME they have a habit of jamming about once per box, more if you feed them ammo they don't like (mine hates steel ammo). If I was counting on one for HD, that would scare the crap out of me.
So just throwing some names out there on super-budget stuff that mike work better:
-Remington R51s are $199 on Buds. Never shot one, but they can't be worse than a Hi-Point.
-RIA makes the M200 38 Special revolvers in the low $200s new. It's a revolver, your fingers are doing all the work to cycle it, it's not going to jam.
-Smith SD9VEs can be found around $270 online and are usually $300-$350 in brick and mortar. We're leaving Hi Point territory here at 2x the price, but these are real deal pistols. The trigger sucks, but everything else about them is surprisingly up-market for what you pay. Mine has fed a couple hundred rounds of 9mm and never even thought about choking - with the Glock action, that's normal too.
And as I got typing this out, I got thinking: would 9mm NATO ammo make a Hi-Point run more reliably? IIRC, it was loaded hot to give a little more umph to drive blowback submachine guns - maybe it can help drive blowback budget pistols too? Mine's a 45 so of course I've never checked.