Quote Originally Posted by 10mm-man View Post
Not entirely true- you don't need the gun in hand.
As I mentioned above, I don't have knowledge of a specific statute that addresses this but I do remember that, when we went through our interview with the BATF Inspector prior to getting our FFL, he did mention that we needed to physically inspect the serial number ourselves. I don't remember him saying that we had to have the firearm on hand but I understood what he said as "when you sign the 4473, you are affirming that that you personally checked all the information concerning both the firearm as well as the buyer's contact information" (taken from his/her DL).

Like SAFriday said, I do it this way all the time because, in the end, it is my ass that's on the line. Yes, the BATF Inspectors scare me a little bit... :-P