Note to Self: Put Down the Wine Glass Before Unloading Bullets

Geez, Plaxico Burress looks dumber by the minute.

Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress caught a bullet in his leg while fumbling with a gun in the vestibule of a Manhattan nightclub early yesterday, sources said.

The trouble-plagued NFL star blasted himself through his right thigh just after midnight near the VIP entrance to the LQ nightclub on Lexington Avenue and East 48th Street and had to be hospitalized, sources said.

Burress, 31, was allegedly inside the hot spot with teammate Antonio Pierce when they were confronted by security guards looking for weapons.

The Super Bowl hero, who nabbed the game-winning catch in the Giants' monumental win over the Patriots in February, admitted to the guards that he was packing heat, sources said.

After moving to a secluded area with a guard, he allegedly took the gun out and started to unload the bullets while drinking a glass of wine. But the sure-handed wideout began to bobble the firearm, accidentally firing a shot that ripped through his leg but missed the bone.

A source said a guard came over in the aftermath, emptied the gun's chamber and then gave it back to Burress.

Security personnel tried to call an ambulance, but the grid great stopped them.

Sources said Pierce drove Burress to Cornell Medical Center at 2 a.m. and then left immediately. It's not clear where Burress was in the time between the shooting and his arrival at the hospital.

Such stupidity I've come to expect from Burress. But I'm disappointed to find out Antonio Pierce was with him. I thought he knew better. Now he faces legal issues, although word is he'll still be in the starting lineup in Washington today. The police would like to chat with him.

Plaxico Burress isn’t the only one in trouble after Friday night’s shooting. Antonio Pierce is in hot water, too.

Pierce was not only with Burress when the receiver shot himself in the right thigh at a Manhattan night club Friday night, he apparently tried to hide the gun after the incident, the Daily News has learned. In fact, Pierce’s attorney was frantically trying to save him from criminal charges late last night, the News is reporting.

Burress, meanwhile, is expected to be arrested on felony weapons charges sometime in the next few days, according to sources. He could face up to five years in prison if he’s eventually convicted. Carrying an illegal, concealed weapon in New York also carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 ½ years.
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• Burress was drinking at the nightclub, and the gun apparently slipped down his pants leg and went off accidentally. He apparently does not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon in New York. He had a license in Florida, but that expired in May and wouldn’t have been recognized here anyway.

• Burress told Pierce (and others at the club) not to call 911 after he was shot, and he didn’t go to the hospital for two hours, until 2 a.m. when his wife, Tiffany, and a friend finally took him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

• Pierce agreed to cooperate with police if they agreed not to immediately charge him with a crime. Cops are still planning to get a warrant to search Pierce’s car.

I'll assume Burress doesn't have a license in New Jersey, either.