I’m proud to be an American. I’m ashamed to be an American. And I’m not sure what it means to be an American.

As you know, I’ve been living in London for the past two years. I’m beginning to feel like a local, but I’m still occasionally jolted by my American roots.

When have I felt proud to be an American in London? The first videotaped beheading of an American journalist by a jihadist with a British accent drew some attention over here. But I was dumbstruck to read this sentence in one of the local newspapers: “Scotland Yard warned the public that viewing, downloading or disseminating the video within the UK might constitute a criminal offence under terrorism legislation.”

Viewing the video might be a criminal offense??? Toto, I’m not in Kansas anymore.

In my mind’s eye, I see scores of college kids at Oxford and Cambridge, six drinks into the evening, saying: “Whoa! That dude got his head cut off?! We gotta Google that!”

And now they’ve committed criminal offenses?

Maybe that’s true over here in England, but I’m pretty sure we’d never stand for that in the United States. It makes me proud to be an American.

(I must say that the news of the second beheading of an American journalist dramatically changed the picture in my mind’s eye. Those college kids have now sobered up, and they’re heading off to enlist.)

So much for pride in being an American. Then that nine-year-old girl blew away her shooting instructor with an Uzi. . . .

The news story was bad enough, but the local press coverage made me cringe to be an American. One local newscaster introduced the story and then cut away to the piece of the video deemed suitable for public television. The video stopped just as the gun’s recoil pushed the barrel up toward the instructor’s head. The story then cut back to the newscaster who, until then, had been a pretty composed fellow. But he was left speechless by what he’d just seen, and he shook his head, as if to clear his mind, before he could continue reading the news.

The sight of a nine-year-old shooting an Uzi is plenty disturbing even to those of us with American eyes. But British eyes are different: Handguns are prohibited over here. You must have a good reason (the need for self-defense is not sufficient) to possess any firearm, and all weapons are registered. As a result, people just don’t die by gunshot in this country. “There were 0.04 recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010.”

Thus, an American sees a nine-year-old shooting a semi-automatic (or was it fully automatic?) weapon and thinks, “That’s slightly weird and a terrible pity, but it’s within the realm of possibility.” A British newscaster — a pretty composed guy, who’s surely managed to keep his cool while reporting on many horrible events — sees the same image and is left speechless, just shaking his head in disbelief.

And, I must say, I was left shaking my head, too. I was cringing for my home and native land. (Well, okay — bad choice of words. I was cringing for the land that I love.) I don’t discuss politics in this column, and I’m not taking a position on gun control generally. I’m an American, so, unlike my new neighbors, I see room for reasonable people to debate the propriety of gun control generally. But that film clip, coupled with the broadcaster’s reaction to it, did make me cringe. Sometimes, I’m ashamed to be an American.

Finally, I sometimes wonder what it means to be an American. I recently went to see “The Book of Mormon,” the religious satire brought to you by the writers of “South Park.” I confess that I laughed along with the rest of the audience as the cast sang and danced its way through 90 minutes of ridiculing a religion.

But, walking home, I was wondering how folks would react if the show had picked on a religion that was not both a very small minority and distinctly American. I suspect that a musical poking fun at Judaism would have the Anti-Defamation League up in arms. A musical that ridiculed Catholicism would draw strong rebukes from the church. A musical that laughed at born-again Christians would surely draw an economic and political backlash. And a musical that mocked Muslims might result in a fatwa or two from the fanatics.

But Mormonism? What the heck. There aren’t that many of ’em, and they’ll just have to suck it up.

Because I’m so deeply American, I’m convinced that “The Book of Mormon” has a place in the public debate, just as I’m convinced that the Nazis have the right to march in Skokie. But it does strike me that the public reaction would be entirely different to a musical comedy ridiculing “The Torah,” “The King James Bible,” or “The Quran.”

Sometimes, I don’t know what it means to be an American.

And you?

Mark Herrmann is the Chief Counsel – Litigation and Global Chief Compliance Officer at Aon, the world’s leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital and management consulting. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.