What I think happened, not that anyone cares. Ol' F.P Ambler died, his loving wife kept the gun and probably the rest of ol' F.P.s stuff. She lived with the stuff until she couldn't live alone anymore. The son (I'm guessing son in law) got the dubious responsibility of helping move Mom in Law to an assisted care/nursing home and cleaning out the old house of sixty years worth of accumulated items. Probably most went to Goodwill or Salvation Army, a lot went to the landfill. The gun however, can't be donated (without a little work and this guy has already worked hard, in his mind) or just thrown away. So he does the first responsible thing that comes to mind, sell it at a gunstore. Like the rest of ol' F.P's stuff it's old (some folks just don't have any appreciation for old things) and maybe he (the seller) and ol' F.P/ never really got along. F.P probably wasn't a big shooter, maybe he never shot that gun at all, and he certainly didn't take the seller to the range during family visits to fire a few down range, chew the fat and do some "male bonding". So the seller takes it to gotglocks store. We all know what happens next.
I don't think he was a druggie, I know he wasn't a shooter. I think he just wanted rid of the gun and if he got some gas money so much the better. Barring that, drop it off at the police station and get back to his regularly scheduled program.
I think that the real tragedy here is that the buyer had to brag about it. He coulda just shown the piece and said that he got a good deal and we all would have congratulated him. Instead some wished him bad thoughts, some got riled at those who wished the bad thoughts and all of us spent way to much time thinkin' about it.
I hope this makes me think the next time feel a little boastful, how 'bout you?
Wheeler44
P.S.
The moral of the story is (I guess) If you don't want some relative givin' away your guns (that's what happened here) then teach a whole bunch of them to shoot. And make it enjoyable, so that the relatives ,when faced with the hard realities of life, can at least take comfort in knowin' that they have one of your old guns to remember you by.