We have a ban on "pit bulls" in my province and despite a LOT of kvetching about it, it seems to be doing some good...
The common refrain of "it's not the DOG its the OWNERS" is all well and good, but really, it's not that simple, you can NOT do anything to ANYONE simply because they are so criminally stupid they could do just about anything, the laws just don't apply to "potential super-idiot"
It is an odd conundrum, as the solution most often proposed by the "small government" types is invariably a "regulate the owners", which would take a gigantic bureacracy (man I think I spelled that wrong) with regular intrusions into peoples "private lives" (you'd have to go and check out every specimen, every owner, regularly, to make SURE the dogs were in no wise violent)
The notion that most attacks are NOT by pitbulls is also pretty much moot- I don't know ANYONE who has died or been threatened with death by a poodle, but statistically they are among the top-rated "dog attacks" animals, whereas 2 of my friends have been sent to near-death states by dogs (not pitbulls in either case tho, so read that as you may) and in one case I am SURE that provocation was not an issue (the other happened when the person was very young and may have inadvertently "teased" the dog, but he was in no ways a violent or cruel person)
With pitbulls (and I am talking the jaw-locking "killer" type, which I KNOW does in fact exist) I do support a ban on people owning them- I view it kinda like fireworks bans up here- there's TOO many idiots who don't understand ANYTHING and could cause untold damage- add to that the broken legal system (speaking about Canada specifically here) and you have a recpie for bad things happening
I have a dog, too, part wolf or coyote or something, so I am not a "dog hatin" or otherwise super-ill-informed type, but until you can actually lock people up simply for being morons, this kind of stuff is necessary, and in fact defines "civilization" in my mind
Just my few cents worth