NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Since the tragic Covenant School shooting, many are calling for better gun control in our state.

A close friend of Dr. Katherine Koonce, the former director at the Covenant School, urges more protection for young children who are terrified to go to school, especially since the tragedy at Covenant School.

After Gov. Bill Lee called for change Tuesday morning, he will sign an executive order to strengthen background checks for purchasing firearms.

In addition to the executive order, the governor also urged the General Assembly to come together to pass an “order of protection” law, which is similar to a “red flag” law.

This is arguably the most comprehensive move Lee has made regarding gun legislation since the Covenant School shooting two weeks ago.

“I think that that’s a very good start, and I appreciate that Governor Lee has taken the risk. I think that that is a beginning,” said Anna Caudill, a close friend of Koonce.

Caudill said we still have a long way to go, and there are still many Tennesseeans who would like to see more coming from our lawmakers in regard to gun reform.

“It bothers me; it grieves me because our beloved Nashville community has been abandoned. This has happened here now. Now, Nashville is one of the places where a school shooting has happened — not just in a school, but in a church-based school, a private school,” Caudill said.

Since the Covenant School mass shooting, thousands of Tennesseans have marched to the Capitol for tighter gun restrictions in our state.

Those also fighting for gun control, friends who lost their loved ones in the mass shooting at Covenant.

“I’m fighting so hard for gun control because I value the sanctity of human life, and children are a gift from God. I think that my faith and I hope the faith of others, demands that we put action to that. Action would be doing whatever it takes to protect those precious lives, and right now, we have 25 years of evidence to show that more guns do not do that,” Caudill said.

Caudill is doing exactly what she said Koonce would want her to do, fight for gun reform so that no more students have to witness another mass shooting in a school again.

“For the future with gun control, I hope to see a day when there are no weapons that were designed for military use in the hands of untrained civilians,” Caudill said.

Caudill said that Dr. Koonce was the one responsible for bringing active shooter training to the Covenant school.

“I realize that if she hadn’t been the headmaster at Covenant, it would have been so much worse. There would have been so many more children gone from our families, we would have lost so much more that day,” Caudill said.

Caudill has so graciously offered to collect, take in, clean, and preserve all of the stuffed animals, cards, signs, and other items that hundreds have brought to memorialize all of the victims.