The attitudes, morals, and practices toward guns are referred to as gun culture in the field of sociology. Previous research on gun culture has been predominantly focused on white male gun owners. There is a lack of research on gun attitudes amongst the Latino population. This is a considerable oversight, as lived experiences can affect the perceived need to own a gun. The study will examine how cultural identity and perceived threats, such as fear of victimization and displacement, influence security precautions amongst the Latino population in Pima County, Arizona. The research questions are: 1. How does lived experience as a racial/ethnic minority impact personal beliefs towards safety? 2. Is there a relationship between perceived threats and positive gun attitudes? 3. Does collective and/or individual displacement and experiences of diaspora contribute to the need for security? The study will consist of a pre-interview survey and 15-30 interviews. Survey questions will feature demographic questions to filter for interview applicants and allow me to better focus interview questions on participants' lived experiences and family history. The survey will be advertised through social media and cultural centers at the University of Arizona and Pima County. Proposed participants will include individuals residing in Pima County that identify as Latinos and Indigenous individuals from Southwest tribes. Conducting research via interview will allow me to gain insight into each individual's definition of gun culture, and allow me to ascertain how each individual's unique cultural heritage may influence their attitudes towards guns.

The Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) guidelines, adapted to transit by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) focus on implementing strategies of surveillance at transit centers. CPTED guidelines for transit are intended to provide transit agencies with both safety principles and effective utilization through a range of recommended environmental design elements, including and not limited to security cameras, lighting, and visibility. The objective is to assess whether these guidelines are adequate in promoting perceptions of safety for riders of the Regional Transportation District’s (RTD) light rail stations located in the Denver Metropolitan Area. This study uses field research observations of ten stations in neighborhoods with different incomes – five in low-income communities, and five in upper-middle to higher income communities – to determine how neighborhood incomes interact with station safety elements to affect riders’ safety perceptions. Overall, this research didn’t confirm that higher income neighborhoods receive better solutions to combat safety concerns compared to low-income areas, as some stations in neighborhoods with low incomes felt safer. The findings provide insights into the factors that contribute to the average transit rider’s perceived sense of safety at transit stations. They also reveal inconstancies between what the agency presents as important safety and customer service elements to what some riders perceive to be important in their transit experience. This evaluation will help address the gap between RTD’s measures of system safety, which primarily focuses on technology and system performance, to the riders’ actual feelings of safety while waiting for and riding transit.

In recent years, the idea of AI as an Existential Risk has become increasingly prevalent in the media. This research aims to track that trend, and critically analyze the idea of AI as an Existential risk. Existential fears around AI can cause us to ignore the present harms that AI has already enacted, particularly against marginalized groups. Understanding the proponents of this narrative and their impact on the public perception of AI is paramount. Using the emerging field of Critical AI as a theoretical basis, this research focuses on Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres’ emerging work on the set of philosophies that inform the conversations around AI as an Existential Risk. These philosophies are Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism and Longtermism (TESCREAL). Using a combination of computational analysis techniques and natural language processing (NLP) tools, namely, Named Entity Recognition, Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis, we analyze the trends and topics associated with AI as an Existential Risk in the global news coverage in the English language. In conjunction with Gebru and Torres’ analytical framework, we anticipate that the presence of TESCREAL Philosophies in the news coverage of AI will occur frequently and grow in importance over time, along with the increasing influence of the proponents of these philosophies in AI discourse. This research is crucial for understanding how these philosophies can potentially be influencing AI policy and regulation decisions. Key words: Existential Risk, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence, TESCREAL