It is better to be safe than sorry, and that strategy is probably doubly important when you have a gun in your hand. It seems that advice is worth passing along as accidental shootings have sent two Lawrence men to the hospital in the past week.

Early Wednesday morning officers met a 21-year-old man with a bullet wound in his hand at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, said Lawrence Police Sgt. Trent McKinley.

The man told police he was in the middle of disassembling a newly purchased .40-caliber handgun — at 12:55 a.m. — when the gun discharged, shooting him in his left hand, McKinley said. The man was driven to the hospital by a friend.

While investigating the shooting officers found the handgun and discharged round at the western Lawrence residence where the incident occurred, McKinley said.

Police do not believe the shooting involved any criminal activity. A condition report on the victim was not immediately available Wednesday morning.

Because police are viewing the incident as a medical emergency rather than a crime, McKinley could not say whether drugs or alcohol were a contributing factor.

Another man was sent to the hospital Saturday night for what is most likely an accidental shooting, police said.

Around 9:15 p.m., officers arrived at a home in the 1500 block of Pinewood Drive, where they found a 21-year old man lying in the garage with a towel wrapped around his calf, said Lawrence Police spokeswoman Kim Murphree.

Four witnesses on scene told police the suspect, a 25-year-old man known to the victim, was holding a handgun when it fired and hit the victim, Murphree said. The handgun was recovered at the scene.

The victim, whose name was not released, suffered a single gunshot wound to the leg, Murphree said. He was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and later transferred to a Kansas City-area hospital for treatment.

Cheryl Wright Kunard, assistant to the Douglas County district attorney, said in an email the office was examining the shooting, which appeared to be accidental.

“We are reviewing the reports to determine if any laws were broken,” she wrote.

Police won’t seek out the suspect unless the district attorney’s office issues an arrest warrant, Murphree said.

McKinley said accidental shootings can be classified as several different things and they’re not always reported to police, which makes it difficult to say how frequently they happen.

“There are likely many incidents of accidental weapons discharges which don’t get reported to us, especially where no injury occurred or where the incident was not witnessed or heard by others,” he wrote.

And while the frequency of accidental shootings is uncertain, there are a few good tips for avoiding them, McKinley said.

Most weapons manufacturers release safety recommendations with each weapon and it would behoove firearm owners to review that literature, McKinley said.

“Individuals should also treat every weapon as if it were loaded and visually and physically verify a round is not in the chamber before pulling the trigger to disassemble the weapon or for other reasons,” he wrote.