Bodega and deli robbers would eat bullets under a community activist’s push to put legal guns behind the markets’ counters.

Fernando Mateo’s group, Hispanics Across America, plans to distribute gun-permit applications to 14,000 bodega owners around the state.

“We’ve gotten to the point where we need to provide firearms for these hardworking people,” Mateo said yesterday.

Albania Torres, whose uncle was shot dead in a robbery in Queens, last weekend, thinks Mateo has the right idea.

“We don’t want any other families to go through this,” said Torres, whose uncle, Juan Torres, was cut down in his store by a bullet to the head.

Mateo wants the workers to take advantage of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to lower gun-permit fees.

Some local bodega workers are dubious about the gun plan — including one who says that he can’t see himself shooting a robber.

“I’d defend myself as best I could, but I’m not a killer,” said Mohamed Elfaki, 39, owner of West Side Deli at West 145th and Amsterdam in Hamilton Heights. He called Mateo’s proposal “a crazy idea.”