Danielle's Gun

[Red Giant07]

Hey all- new to the boards.

Ive looked at the first few pages of posts, and I havent seen anyone mention this- so Ill throw it out there.

In the episode where Sayid is captured by the French woman- they hear a noise outside and Danielle grabs her gun and goes out. My question is- if she has been stranded there for 16 years- how could she still have ammo for that gun?

If we are to believe she hunts and kills bears- she would have good experience with this, and thus would have fired many bullets- but if she was there on a scientific voyage- then its unlikely that the scientists would be carrying around boxes and boxes of ammunition.

So- any thoughts on this? It seems a somewhat trite matter, but it just seemed very odd to me.

[99Percent]

This is a good question.

I think Sayid hinted by replying "A scientific expediton with guns" that it really wasn't a purely scientific expedition.

[Baron X]

We don't know how many people were on the expedition, nor do we know their original destination. Additionally we do not know what the nature of the expedition was. They may have intended to hunt for their supper instead of relying on freeze dried rations. Since we do not know how many people were on the expedition we do not know the number of firearms that came on the expedition. But using very modest numbers let us say there were 6 in the original party and that half of them had rifles. Considering the fact that Danielle seems to still have a descent amount of supplies we can presume that they intended to be gone for at the very least 6 to 8 months. Three rifles at three boxes of ammo each would be 180 rounds. Given that Danielle uses traps to catch game in addition to shooting what she can. It is not inconceivable that even with this very modest numbers that Danielle has not necessarily had to shoot her rifle more than 150 times in a 16 year period of time. Unless you are suggesting there is a very substantial bear population?

[Wes Cohn]

Did the French party come hunting the rumor of dinosaurs?

[Baron X]

No, their original destination was not the island they landed on.

[the_real_ptb]

About the gun, is that the only one on the island? If there are others, and they and Danielle don't get along, why don't they rush her and take away the gun? It seems like she is the only one on the island with a gun and that is how she keeps the others from capturing and or killing her.

If that is the case, and if Ethan is one of the others, why doesn't he steal the Marshall's handgun to even the playing field? I believe it is common knowledge back at camp that Sawyer used a gun to kill the bear.

[Porter]

i don't think it's that farfetched to have guns on a science expedition...after all, it's still an EXPEDITION.

would you want to go somewhere foreign and strange for an extended period of time without some sort of protection????...if it was me, i'd insist on having guns.

[Notslar]

Possibly this question could be answered by the theory that the expedition team brought the animals(polar bear, monster, etc.) with them and they needed guns and plenty of ammo to keep themselves safe and the animals restrained. I dont know if anyone has ever seen planet of the apes. Well a space ship crashes with lots of monkeys being used for scientific experiments and the monkeys are freed on the new planet. The monkeys rebel, and reproduce rapidly. Also, there is an element of time continuim in Planet of the Apes and possibly the issue is the same with the island. The animals that were being used on the scientific experiment evolved into large and many polar bears and the monster and such. Though this wouldnt explain why Danielle is still the age she is and growing at a rapid pace. Just a thought.

[Ghost]

Guns on a scientific expedition make a perfect sense - if you are going, for example, study wild animals in a jungle, you don't want to get stuck just with tranquilizers...

[Badger]

Although the science team may have brought the rifles we saw in Danielle's possession, they might have also been on the island prior to their arrival.

This could also help explain why much of the stuff we saw in her hideout appeared, shall we say, "vintage" rather than merely 16 years old.

Another thing: although Danielle speaks French that does not mean the rest of her party were French. In fact Danielle herself may not even be from France but rather some other French speaking country. She never said it was a French science team, just that she was on, or part of, a science team that was shipwrecked.

[Kayzar]

In any case....she isn't hunting poler bears. For one, polar bear meat is toxic, so she can't eat it. So if she isn't hunting it to eat it, she's hunting them for fun...which doesn't make any sense. She may have been using the guns to protect herself from the bears, but that is the only viable reason for them to be used.

[deelsee7]

Last I remember, Kate had the gun Sawyer used to shoot the polar bear, but I believe they are now out of bullets.

Someone help me here. Didn't they use the gun again for something, using the last of the ammo?

Although that doesn't mean that Sawyer, or someone else didn't find another clip of ammo on the plane. I'm not that good at recognizing guns, but I think most cops/marshalls/etc. prefer 9mm automatics so it's possible that ammo could be found that would work in it.

[Badger]

For one, polar bear meat is toxic, so she can't eat it.

Only a polar bears liver is toxic due to the high amount of vitamin A. The meat itself is edible.