Gun-Toter's Pastor Prayed for Obama's Death

The man who brought an assault rifle to an Obama town hall in Arizona last week had attended a sermon the day before during which the pastor said he would “pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell,” TPM reports. “I’d like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight,” said the pastor, Steven Anderson, calling Obama “the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide.”

The congregant, Chris Broughton, told Anderson he planned to take the rifle to the rally, but Anderson says he encouraged him to obey the law. “Nowhere in the sermon did I advocate vigilantism,” says Anderson. “I’d rather have him die of natural causes anyway, that way he’s not some martyr. I’m praying for him to die just so he gets what he deserves.” (More Steven Anderson stories.)