The following is a video transcript.

Meet Texas Independent Program Attorney: Emily Taylor

My name is Emily Taylor and I’m an Independent Program Attorney for Texas LawShield. I’m a native Texan and grew up just south of Houston. I started my career as an Assistant District Attorney for Galveston County, Texas. After a couple of years working as a prosecutor, I started to notice that the criminal justice system seemed to only have one solution to solve the problems in its path. The old saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and that couldn’t be truer than when someone winds up in the system.

Good and bad people get swept in together. Courts, prosecutors, and police tend to treat them in the same way. I decided I wanted to become a defense attorney to help the good folks who found themselves charged in court. I’ve been working as an Independent Program Attorney for Texas LawShield ever since. The Texas LawShield members I’ve represented have been some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. They’re exactly the kind of people that I’ve always hated seeing get dragged before a judge and treated like a common street criminal.

One of my favorite memories is defending an elderly woman who had to shoot a man to defend her home. Even though he made a forceful and unlawful entry into her house, she was charged with a second-degree felony. Being given the opportunity to save her and her family the worry, stress, and headaches that the process was going to cause, and to do something to keep the system from ruining her was wonderful.

If I could tell gun owners in Texas one thing from my experiences both as a criminal prosecutor and as an Independent Program Attorney, I would tell them that bad guys and criminals are a lot smarter than you might think. They pick out places to attack you where they’re unlikely to be caught or where there aren’t very many witnesses. They pick their victims very carefully. That’s why it’s so important to have a carry license and to carry your firearm everywhere you’re legally allowed.

I think a lot of people are intimidated by all the laws surrounding carrying firearms, and even though they’re licensed, they tend to leave their guns at home just because they aren’t sure what all the rules entail. Getting educated on carrying is a great thing to keep you safe because the bad guys will pick just the right times to strike and you need to make sure you’re as prepared to defend yourself as the law will allow. You need a firearm to protect yourself from the bad guys, but you also need a truly dedicated defense attorney to protect you from the system.

It’s a privilege to be an Independent Program Attorney for Texas LawShield and to be able to fight to protect the freedoms of their members.