SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The president of the University of Rhode Island has issued a statement supporting the right of a professor to express his views after he called for the National Rifle Association chief executive’s ‘‘head on a stick.’’

President David Dooley’s comments, issued Sunday, came after a statement last week in which Dooley distanced the university from a posting on Twitter by history professor Erik Loomis. Loomis wrote the post Dec. 14, the day 20 children and six adults were killed by a gunman using a semi-automatic weapon inside a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.