There was another crazy shooting near the White House this weekend. This time, it happened near 17th and Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire before being fatally shot by the Secret Service. A bystander was also injured. Video showed reporters ducking for cover inside the White House complex.

Three weeks earlier, a Texas man exchanged fire with the Secret Service near the Washington Monument. And shortly before that, the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was canceled after a gunman rushed the ballroom. It feels ominous.

Washington, in fact, has always been a place that draws off-their-rocker types dreaming of violence. In 1981, John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan in order to impress Jodie Foster. In 1835, a man claiming to be the king of England tried to shoot Andrew Jackson outside the Capitol. Those men might well have recognized something in Nasire Best, this weekend’s alleged gunman, who during a previous D.C. arrest told officers that he was Jesus Christ.

Even in the prosperous, stable 1990s, the incidents got to be enough of a hassle that, after a troubled man crashed a plane into Bill Clinton’s White House, D.C. began asking for money to help underwrite the response to all the nutters the federal government was attracting.

There are, of course, a lot of reasons why today feels more dangerous: 21st century nutters live in an America full of apocalyptic rhetoric from mainstream pols. They’re egged on by algorithms that bring out the worst. And they’re able to find one another online, too. But at the end of the day, it’s also a classic Washington phenomenon — as is the inevitable overreaction: On Sunday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made yet another federal court filing that labeled the White House ballroom a security necessity.

Freedom Plaza’s New Look. Ahead of the July 4 celebration, Freedom Plaza is now home to 13 statues commemorating the independence struggle. The reviews are not good. The high-minded complaint: The new statues include the depiction of a slave-owner that had been taken down in Delaware in 2020. The more common gripe: It looks tacky and Soviet. The most powerful quibble of all: Freedom Plaza still doesn’t have any shade!

Lewis George Is Way Ahead, According to Lewis George. Days after a City Cast poll showed her with a narrow lead in a race where ranked-choice balloting could make a big difference, Janeese Lewis George’s campaign released a poll showing the mayoral candidate up by 14 points over rival Kenyan McDuffie. The poll, released by campaign consultant GBAO, also shows Lewis George up by 12 points in a ranked-choice voting simulation. Sadly for data nerds, it did not include any demographic details. Because it’s the campaign’s own pollster, take the findings with a grain of salt.

That Bridge May Take a While. The first official weekend of summer forced an old question back into local headlines: Will there ever be a faster way to get to the beach? The good news: Maryland plans to rebuild the perpetually congested Bay Bridge at a cost of over $14 billion, adding new traffic lanes, shoulders, and possibly a bike/pedestrian lane. The bad: Construction likely won’t begin until 2032, according to WJLA.

The Long Burger Line. Steeze Burger was ranked as the DMV’s best burger back when it was just a pop-up. So it was inevitable that, when they finally opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant this weekend in Gaithersburg, lines sprawled down the block.

Your Tax Dollars At Work. D.C. taxpayers have been footing the bill for online shows featuring local radio legend Donnie Simpson and longtime Washington journalist Carol Joynt, according to a Channel 7 investigation. Worse, the city’s Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment couldn’t say just how much it’s spending. It’s not a good look for a city claiming a budget crunch. The office originally oversaw public-access cable, among other things, but both of these shows are streaming shows, and Simpson owns his show outright.

Finally: The popular Barred in D.C. social media account noted that D.C. will soon be coming up with names for the new circle being constructed around the intersection of Potomac and Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The local ANC will also survey residents about a name. Some favorite responses from the comments: Trusty’s Circle (after a nearby bar) and John Philip Sousa Circle (after the composer who was born nearby).