The Bronx jewelry-store owner who turned the tables on armed thugs who tried to rip him off — blasting them with a gun he had stashed in a safe — said today that he did whatever he needed “to protect myself.”

Anthony Spinelli, 49, said the wild scene unfolded shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday when the owner of Spinelli & Sons on Arthur Avenue buzzed in a man and a woman.

One of the would-be robbers whipped out a gun and ordered Spinelli to take money out of the safe.

Spinelli grabbed his licensed handgun and began firing at the suspects.

The couple fled, but Spinelli continued firing after them — hitting a third suspect who was standing by the getaway vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade.

That man was struck in the left leg and taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition.

“I’m doing OK, but I’m shaken up,” Spinelli told The Post today.

“You’re not prepared for anything like that,” said Spinelli.

He said the woman put the gun to his head and that’s when “I went into survival mode.”

“My birthday is in three months and you wonder if you’re going to make it,” he added.

Spinelli, a lifetime NRA member, said, “I did what I did to protect myself.”

“I didn’t want to hurt him,” he added. “I just wanted to disable him.”