Pitbulls are not banned because they are actually dangerous.
Pitbulls were banned because the government at the time needed to be seen to be 'Doing Something' after a spate of dog attacks, some of which involved pits, and many of which involved gsd's, rotties and dobermans.
Pitbulls were the only breed that are not recognised in the UK by the Kennel Club or the FCI (Federation Cynologique Internationale), and so it was VERY easy to ban them, as opposed to attempting to ban recognised pedigree breeds.
You will note, if you care to research, that the other breeds banned at the time, were also not recognised here, and not in fact present here either!
So the government banned 4 breeds, 3 of which have hardly ever been seen in the UK and all of which not recognised by our Kennel Club, so no strong backlash from anyone with any real weight or money.
They banned not just the breed, but the type - as mentioned before, type is based on appearance NOT genetics, NOT DNA, so two perfectly legal breeds can be crossed to produce an illegal breed and you won't know that puppy is illegal, until its 9 months old or older, and done growing, and a DLO measures the dog and determines it is a 'type' dog.
So the BSL gives us legislation that makes people criminals, because they bought a crossbred puppy, and it grew into an illegal dog, it wasn't illegal when they bought it, it wasn't illegal to breed the parent dogs together, they have done nothing wrong, the passage of time and luck and someones opinion, have turned them into criminals.
Can you see why that's ridiculous?
Are pitbulls or any bull breed inherently more dangerous than any other large strong breed?
Not especially, no. There are bigger dogs out there that are legal, a rottie is bigger than a pitbull.
There are heavier dogs out there that are legal.
There are dogs that can bite harder, that are legal.
There are dogs with a higher degree of desire to kill things - most small terriers for example.
In other countries, these dogs are used as assistance dogs, search and rescue dogs, scent detection dogs.
Remarkably, the landmark case against Michael Vick, who had 49fighting pitbulls removed from his property, all of whom had suffered severe neglect, abuse, violence, many of whom had fought and killed other dogs...
They were all fostered and all rehomed bar ONE dog who was euthanised due to aggression AND injuries too severe to be rehabbed.
Despite that horrific treatment, despite being bred to attack and kill other dogs, all those rehomed went on to live safe, happy lives, without injuring anyone.
The point of this is not to say pitbulls are fluffy bunnies, they aren't, they are dogs - but they are not inherently any more dangerous to people, than any other large, heavy, powerful dog.
There are many many factors involved in creating a dangerous dog - genetics, breed type, early nurture, training, handling, housing/environment, health.
Breed is just ONE of those.
And yes fwiw, I have worked with pitbulls (exempted dogs, dogs not yet exempted, dogs in kennels awaiting court cases where they've been used as weapons, dogs that have killed other dogs) and also lots of bullbreeds that are not pitbulls.
Personally, I think the ban on pitbulls was the worst thing that could happen to them - it INSTANTLY made them 'the' dog to have if you want to intimidate people, act like a macho twat.
By labelling them inherently dangerous and scary, the government increased their desirability, to exact the sorts of people, in exactly the types of environments that would frankly make a miniature poodle dangerous.
We now have MORE pitbulls, both illegally and on the exempt dog index, than we EVER had before the ban.
If we don't learn from the error that is BSL, and change our thinking, work out WHY people want scary dogs... things will not improve.
The latest 'must have' dog is teh Caucasian Ovcharka... this is a huge livestock guardian breed suited to desolate mountains and steppes, to protect flocks from thieves and predators. They are not 'dog' aggressive... they are EVERYTHING aggressive, they will kill a man or a wolf or a dog, and are bred to do so.
Another rising in popularity is the Bully Kutta - a tall bullbreed mix originating in India, bred for fighting but again also bred for aggression towards humans.
These are still fairly rare and as a result, very expensive but dog breeding is easy, and cheap to do, and soon we WILL see an explosion in the populations of these breeds, by people who have no business raising animals, who want an animal that will easily kill a person.
The problem is, as it has always been, not dogs.. but humans.