Are college campuses safer when they are gun-free zones?

I was reading an article written by Mark Alexander in The Patriot Post today, and learned some very interesting things that I intend to follow-up on when I'm not in the middle of getting ready to go to Saturday night church. According to Alexander, a Virginia Tech student asked permission of the school board for students who have a valid concealed weapon permit to be allowed to have their weapon on their person on campus. The request was denied as well as scoffed at, and shortly thereafter the tragedy we all now know of occurred. Alexander also included incidents of law-abiding citizens using their weapons for good to stall criminals until police arrived at the scene, some of these incidents were quite similar situation to the Virginia Tech shooting. The question I have to ask myself is, would they need to toll the bell as many times as they did had students been allowed to carry their weapon for protection on campus. Furthermore, should colleges stop stripping our American privileges from us for our "safety?" Please stay with me as I follow this interesting lead, and I encourage you to follow up on it as well. If you find any interesting information leave me a comment.

Update:
So, I never did a proper job of following up on this with research. However, I now see this from a different perspective. As a teacher, I wish for nothing more than to have every available resource to keep my students safe. If anything were to happen to them it would kill me. It is different because I feel like I am supposed to protect them, and it seems from recent events, that I do not have the means to protect them if someone has intent to harm them. I wish there were a way to change this, so that perhaps we could be like that school in Texas where staff with their CPL and additional gun training are allowed to carry for the safety of all, but I do not know if we will ever see the day for that in our very liberal (thanks to the west side) Washington State.