NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In the days since a shooter gunned down three children and three adults at Nashville's Covenant School back in March, Katy and Mike Dieckhaus have found quiet comfort in the pink messages of encouragement that friends sprinkled around their home while they were away.
"We walked into our house, and our house was covered with uplifting verses that are carrying us," Katy told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
"And I don't know if I'll ever be able to take them down."
Just above their oven, one of the notes quotes scripture, "Fear not. I am with you. Be not dismayed."
We noted, "You need to be reminded of that every now and again, huh?"
"Yeah," Katy agreed. "All the time, all the time."
In grieving the senseless murder of their 9-year-old daughter Evelyn, Katy came across an email she had written to Tennessee state lawmakers two years before — "the only email that I've written to lawmakers."
At the time, the legislature was preparing to pass a bill to make it easier for Tennesseans to go out in public carrying guns, just as a potential road rage shooting on Interstate 24 was making the news.
"After reading about the road rage shooting on Highway 24 and a witness comparing it to the Wild West, I have to write this tonight," Katy's wrote.
In her email, Katy expressed fear for the safety of Evelyn and her now 12-year-old sister.
"I do not know if you all have children, but do you all really want to teach them to fight towards others this way?" Evelyn's mother asked.
"What if they are not quick to the draw like in the Wild West? This is where we are heading, and it breaks my heart."
It's a sentiment even more heartbreaking now with the loss of their sweet little Evelyn.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates observed, "You wrote that, never expecting that it would hit so close to home."
"I was hoping not — that was why I wrote it," Katy answered.
A few weeks after protests began on Capitol Hill in the wake of the Covenant shooting, the Dieckhauses decided it was time for them to take their story — and Evelyn's story — to lawmakers.
"The lawmakers we had been talking with who had been very engaging, very emotional with us, very sorrowful. They were wanting to know. They said: 'What can we do?'" Mike Dieckhaus recalled.
That's when Evelyn's dad says they would often pick up on an immediate sense of discomfort.
"We said, 'Look, we don't know what to do, but we think that something needs to be done on the side of firearms' — and you could just feel the room change."
We asked, "It was not a subject that they wanted to discuss?"
"It certainly didn't seem like it," they replied.
Even with protesters during a special legislative session demanding changes in gun laws, the grieving couple — both of whom come from families who are gun owners — was told by some lawmakers that guns were not the issue.
"One comment was that our daughter was killed by a person and not a gun," Katy said.
"That was a really tough one for me to swallow because I think we can all agree it does take both."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "And you had people who compared guns to rocks?"
"Yes," Katy acknowledged.
Never mind that Evelyn was shot multiple times. Never mind that she never had a chance.
"Yeah, somebody said she could have been killed by a rock," Mike said. "I would say if I put a rock in front of you and a gun in front of you, which one are you going to choose if you are getting into a fight?"
Katy interjected, "Or which one would you choose for your child to be presented with?"
Some have even argued that the shooter's gender identity is the real issue.
"I don't have anger and hatred — we both don't — towards the person who did this to our girl. She was not well," Katy said.
"The fact that this person was able to walk in and purchase multiple firearms with ease is so hard for me to continue to wrap my brain around. That's where I am really struggling."
PSA recorded for legislature's special session:
For other Covenant families whose children were at school that day, the lack of progress in the legislature has been disheartening.
Still, the Dieckhauses said they have not lost hope.
"As meetings have progressed, it has gotten better and more conversation is happening," Katy said.
Evelyn's mother has now joined the board of Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans.
The group is lobbying for temporary transfer laws to take guns out of the hands of the mentally ill where there is a real risk, universal background checks and safe storage laws to cut the risks of guns being stolen from vehicles and falling into the wrong hands.
Polls show all of those ideas are overwhelmingly supported by Tennesseans, although the Republican supermajority has refused to consider them.
"We are trying so hard to just work in the middle and come together in the middle — and there's a lot of people that feel that way," Katy said.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted, "There are some who say, based on what we know now about the shooter, none of these laws would have made a difference."
"My answer is we are not trying to go back in time to save Evelyn," Mike Dieckhaus said. "We are trying to save all these other kids who are out there."
Now that lawmakers have returned to session, Katy and Mike said they are not expecting miracles.
But they are praying for progress.
We asked, "When you think about doing justice to Evelyn's memory, what does success look like?"
Katy responded, "Kids not being afraid to go to school, these sweet kids."
And they look to all of those messages around their home for hope, just as they look to the face of the child who now motivates them to try to make a difference.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "When lawmakers look at Evelyn's face, what do you want them to see?"
Katy turned to a nearby photo of their precious daughter, looked away, then quickly glanced back into Evelyn's eyes.
"It's so sad and hard," the grieving mother said, "but we want people to feel some hope from her, from us."
"We want to continue to spread a message of hope, working together and make a change for the better."
The Dieckhauses, as well as advocates with Voices for a Safer Tennessee, said they know that change will not come easily — just look at the lack of action during last year's special session on gun violence.
In fact, it may take years.
But, they added, they owe it to Evelyn to do whatever it takes.
Watch Part 1 below:
NEXT WEEK: Tennessee lawmakers said relaxing gun laws would make us safer. Has it worked?