Don't worry these people who are afraid of pit bulls are probably also afraid of the dark.
*sigh* I'm against banning dog breeds for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it's a dangerous thing for government to tell other people how to live their lives. However, I am a big believer in passing judgement on folks as long as it's by the same rules I'd apply to myself. A person who has a snake as a pet (for example) is a fool. Most often an amusing fool, a temporary fool, an amiable fool, occasionally a dangerous fool, but a fool nonetheless. A person who has a well-trained and well-treated Powerdog is not a fool; he is someone who has developed a good and useful working relationship with a dog, where he's the boss and the dog is the dog. It is the opposite of foolish -- it is wise and noble.
For thousands of years, dogs, cats, and humans have shared a relationship unique in the animal world. Dogs and cats have a long and distinguished history of being neither beasts of burden or livestock (food), but willing partners with man. Dogs and cats helped enormously in the formation of civilization, agriculture in particular. We have a symbiotic relationship that has helped us hugely in the past and will probably help us hugely in whatever future awaits. That alone is reason to dismiss breed-banning altogether and seek a different solution.
Your assinine line about "people who are afraid of pitbulls" is shallow and deliberately insulting. If Powerdog breeds (it's gratifying to see that some folks have finally picked up on my word for dog breeds that are bigger and stronger and potentially more dangerous than others) are banned, people with attitudes like yours will have yourselves to blame. You're so busy taking things personally that you're missing the main feature. Half of the problem is the bad owner -- the other half is the breed. A bad owner with a spaniel or a poodle may have a pissed-off mailman or neighbor on his hands, but not a dead or severely injured one. Until responsible Powerdog owners accept that, they're on defense. They're focusing on the symptom, not the cause.
Personally, I think the REAL problem is that so many people today have a total disconnect with nature and animals. They really believe that "pets are people, too." It is why they start taking things personally, why they think it's okay to demand that others tolerate their pets' misdeeds, and why dogs in cities kill humans. They think snakes are "pets." Where I grew up, keeping a snake (or a lizard or any other critter I caught in the wild) as a "pet" was cruel, plain and simple. People who have Powerdogs -- or any large dogs that live to roam and romp -- in cramped-up city situations are cruel and fools and should be kicked in the butt BEFORE their dogs hurt humans.
The only ones who can "kick butt" in this circumstance IMO are people like kanawa. He's a dog owner who doesn't cruelly keep the dog cooped up and starved for attention. He is the RIGHT kind of owner, the kind all should aspire to. He appears to respect the fact that as the owner of a Powerdog, he has responsibilities slightly more crucial than owners of average dogs (lets define "average dogs" as ones that even at their worst would have a hard time ripping a human to shreds, infants and very young children excepted, and have little or zero track record of doing so).
Any person who owns a powerdog would look up to kanawa and guys like him because clearly, these are folks in a kind of earned brotherhood. So if a guy like kanawa saw this person with a staked-and-chained snarling pit bull in a tiny yard with a wimpy fence and kanawa and pals went UP to this person and said, "Hey Pal, what you're doing here is NOT COOL, you're screwing it up for the rest of us because you're stupid," the person would pay attention. He'd probably ignore Animal Control, but guys who are "real" owners as opposed to amateurs? He'd be intimidated.
It takes balls, and it takes passing judgement -- which in itself takes balls, but the key to justified judgement is when you call for the same standards as you hold to yourself. Peer pressure, social stigma and intimidation, are GREAT ways to get rid of stupid behaviour by a minority that endangers a majority, without getting the government involved. This is why I think the Powerdog folks themselves, the ones who passionately love these breeds, appreciate them -- and in a sense help ALL of us in keeping them going because the day may come when we'll be darned glad to have these animals around and on our side -- are key to solving this problem the right way, keeping government out and breed-banning off the table.