We learned a few days ago that Broughton attended a sermon at Faithful Word Baptist Church the day before that infamous town hall, in which Pastor Steve Anderson prayed for Obama "to die and go to hell". Quoth the man of God:

... you're going to tell me that I'm supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things -- you're gonna tell me I'm supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he's in Phoenix, Arizona? Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell.

Well, it appears that at least one of his flock may not be willing to wait for the Lord to move in His mysterious ways:

In an interview with ABC 15 outside the storefront Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Broughton said of Anderson's controversial August 16 "Why I Hate Barack Obama" sermon: "I concur, I think we'd be better off if God would send [Obama] where he's going now instead of later. [Obama] is destroying our country."

Okay, so Broughton wants Obama to die. Nothing illegal about that, right? But wait, there's more:

And when a reporter followed up with, "you're not advocating violence against the president?" Broughton, who has previously said his weapons are for defense, says "I'm not going to answer that question directly."

Hmm, seems like a pretty straightforward question to me. Why not answer it straightforwardly? Then he adds a chilling little coda:

"I don't care how God does it, I'm not going into further detail than that," Broughton says. "It would be better now than later."

Okay, so we have a guy who shows up at a Presidential appearance heavily armed and openly carrying. That's creepy enough. Now he says it would be a good thing if Obama dies now. Should it be done with violence? He'd prefer not to answer that question directly.

According to TPM, no word yet from the Secret Service on whether they're investigating the matter further.

Added clarification: I don't personally believe that this particular man is an imminent threat to President Obama. For one thing, assassins don't tend to broadcast their intentions. The overall point of this diary is the ratcheting-up of violent rhetoric generally, and the corrosive effect it has on the discourse overall. The more people talk about this sort of thing openly, the more acceptable it becomes, and the more others are encouraged to say the same things. Or perhaps act.