[TrevorJ]

That's fair, I think I see where you are coming from now. I do think, however, that we have to be careful not to remove personal responsibility from the equation. Circumstances can certainly motivate behaviour but we are still responsible for our actions. Suggesting otherwise seems compassionate on the surface, but it can also be incredibly disempowering and corrosive.

[viraptor]

There was an article lately about interviews with captured ISIS fighters on the death row. (I can't find the link unfortunately, maybe anyone's got it?) The idea was that what some of them describe is basically being forced to join the movement because there's no other way for them to provide for their families - they just suddenly lived in the middle of a war, but they don't care about the ideology itself. Biased? Of course, and doesn't apply to the European attackers. But still something to think about.

[mercurial]

I agree with you both, but I think we can argue that people can have mitigating circumstances, and that you can (and should) try to understand why it is they do what they do, rather than "Any gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person is no threat to anybody — except bad people." Life isn't a comic book.

[TrevorJ]

Agreed, good point.