For most of us, an encounter with a knife-wielding would-be robber would leave us anything but calm.

Shannon “Bear” Cothran, on the other hand, is utterly unperturbed. Unperturbed and, alas, unemployed.

Cothran, 29, was working the overnight shift at the Shell gas station and convenience store in Nashua on Sunday when the armed robber rushed in, came behind the counter, flashed the knife and said, “Give me the money or I’ll kill you!”

Bear calmly pulled out his Ruger LCP .380 and suggested the gentleman might want to pursue other options.

He did.

Just hours later, Cothran was fired from a job he’d held for 10 years. For violating the company’s no-gun policy.

His story has made him a national talk topic. He’s received several job offers, and locals spontaneously began raising money for Bear and his family.

Potential GOP presidential contender Rand Paul even mentioned him on Boston Herald Radio yesterday:

“Let me know if he’s gonna get an award — I’m going to fly up there and help give the award to him,” Rand said. “It boggles my mind that his employer wouldn’t have had a party to celebrate him protecting the business as opposed to firing him.”

Cothran is taking it all in stride. He’s not angry at anyone — not even the Worcester-based Nouria Energy that fired him. In an era of self-declared victimhood and political finger-pointing, the one thing Bear Cothran refuses to do is pass the buck.

He “wasn’t surprised at all” by his firing, he says. “I was aware of (the no-gun) policy, and I knowingly chose to violate that policy, ?because I wanted to go home to my family.”

In other words, he’d rather be looking for a job than have his family looking for a funeral home.

“I’m sympathetic toward the company’s ?position,” Bear said. “And having a gun doesn’t necessarily mean nothing bad is going to happen.”

Asked if he has any regrets: “No. Not one.”

The only people who will have regrets in this case will be Nouria Energy. Employees like Bear Cothran are hard to find.