A recap of some of the recent tweets threatening President Obama with assassination:

After the second one was informed that the authorities had been alerted, he stated:

Nothing wrong?

As several commentators have noted, 18 USC Sec. 871 states,

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Although electronic means of communication are not specifically mentioned, this was enough for Twitter to temporarily suspend at least one of the accounts involved.  As for criminal sanctions, we’ll have to see how that part plays out, but apparently the Secret Service is investigating.

Tweet safely, friends.