The University of Rhode Island's (URI) campus police may soon be able to carry firearms, reported the Associated Press.

Rhode Island was the last state to not allow police on public campuses to carry guns. The Rhode Island Board of Education voted 8-1 on Thursday to allow the state's three institutions' officials to decide on their own whether or not to allow their campus police to arm themselves.

According to the AP, each public Rhode Island school had a different response to the vote.

URI President David Dooley said he is in favor of the idea. The Community College of Rhode Island is reportedly against it and Rhode Island College leaders have not given a definitive response at this time.

This vote comes on the heels of a report of a gunman being spotted in a URI building last month, reported the AP. No one was arrested or identified and no gun was even found. Campus police arrived in a minute, but could not enter the building because they were not armed. Town police arrived in six minutes and state police in 30.

"I feel quite comfortable that the people we are looking to arm - if that decision is made - are duly trained and certified and all the things we expect from police officers," Board of Education member Colleen Callahan told the AP.

However, Dooley expressed that there is a difference in opinion on URI's campus.

"There's a strong divide of opinion on campus," Dooley told the AP. "We will think very carefully about the consequences of that decision."

URI Physics Professor Peter Nightingale was outspoken about his objection to the vote saying people were reacting out of fear.

"The experiment is over and the results are in," he told the AP. "More guns spell more violence, more victims, more fatalities."