I voted to ban pit bulls, and in part it's because of an experience I had with a Rottweiler. Was walking my little dog - schnauzer - and passed a woman with two Rottweilers. After we're about 70-80 yards apart, she's in a small field and lets the dogs off to play. They both come racing towards us - I pick up my dog just before they get onto us, the female rottweiler bit my dog in the hindquarters, and my arm, and just hangs on, tugging both of us. The other was circling us. Not a bark, not a growl, nothing. The woman runs up, they release and just sit there like nothing happened. Calm as can be.
Point is that's their breeding at work. They'd simply done what they were bred to do - their genetic job. Of course, the woman tells me she's got kids, her dogs are loose all the time and get along with all other dogs, and the nearby children, never a problem ever!! Etc. All I know is I had two 100 pound dogs circling me and my dog, and they were BRED to kill one or both of us. She wasn't a bad owner, or if she was a bad owner, the bar is too damn high for someone not a trained dog trainer who is licensed to own such animals. Labs are the #1 dog in about 48 states - millions of "bad owners" and millions more labs than pit bulls. How many deadly attacks by labs each year?
Had a similar experience with a pit mix who lived next door. Years - no problems. One night I'm walking the dogs, get near the house, and the pit mix just races across the road and takes out the male dog - grabs it by the hindquarters and has him on the ground, ON MY LEASH. I'm six feet away. I yell, kick the dog, he lets go and just walks back to its yard like nothing happened. Not a bark, not a growl, from the pit mix or my dogs.
I told the owner - my neighbor - and he keeps the dog fenced almost all the time after that. But one day he lets the dogs out front while he's working in the garage and to use the bathroom and a 12 year old girl jogs by. The dog grabs her calf and does enough damage to require 3 surgeries to fix. The dog is 8yo at this point and it's the first time it's ever bitten anyone. So the dog is put down at this point. But my owner is a good guy, responsible, walks his dogs, etc.
So, sure, owners of pit bulls can be "bad owners" but the problem is the pit bull has been selectively bred to fight and kill. So when it attacks, it does immense damage. I see no reason for non-trained individuals to own such dogs. If they do, fine, require them to get a liability policy to cover their dogs. Require them to demonstrate competence handling a dog bred to fight and kill.