Support for ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban at 20-Year Low, Executions at 40-Year Low, Congress Reaches Budget Deal: A.M. Links

• There was another round of GOP presidential debates last night! (Check out Reason staffers bon tweets and increasingly-inebriated observations from throughout the night here.) According to the pundits, there was “no clear winner,” but a Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio debate over foreign policy “will have meaningful implications,” Jeb Bush “finally showed spine“—not that it will matter—and Sen. Rand Paul “was in a fighting mood.”
• Fifty-three percent of Americans oppose a ban on “assault weapons,” the first time a majority has been against such a ban in more than 20 years of ABC News/Washington Post polling. 
• Austrian police have arrested two men with suspected links to the recent terror attacks in Paris. 
• U.S. use of the death penalty this year was at a four-decade low. 
• Congressional leaders have reached a tax and spending deal in time to stave off the fabled government shutdown. More on the winners and losers in this arrangement here. 
• The Tuesday terror threat at Los Angeles schools was a hoax, but the resulting increase in police in schools is real. 
• The Federal Reserve is expected to raise short-term borrowing rates today.
• Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Brig. Gen. Diana Holland has been named the first female commandant of cadets at West Point.

New at Reason: 

Brickbat: Could It Be…Satan? —By Charles Oliver

Pretend Answers on Terror: Politicians and pundits think they know what should be done. —By John Stossel

Mass Shooting Delusions: The illogic of “common-sense gun safety laws.” —By Jacob Sullum 

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to sign up for Reason’s daily updates for more content.