BSL - Breed Specific Legislation
A BSL is when a town, state or country passes an animal law only against one kind of animal. the recent favorite of these laws are "pit bull" type dogs. The laws are generally passed right after a high profile dog attack where a child was injured. This attack will have gotten obscenely inflated news coverage, and will often have the dog breed wrong. A few weeks later a town passes a law stating that such and such breed needs to be spayed or neutered, confined on an owner's property, or wearing a muzzle at all times, and the owner must take out an insurance policy on the dog. Most of the time any local humane societies or animal groups will be against the ban as being at all effective.
The worse version of the law completely outlaws a breed of dog, proceeds to destroy any of them that turn up at the animal shelter, and requires all the ones currently living in the town to be removed or destroyed. Some towns take it a step further and go door to door to impound all dogs of such and such breed. How nice they go door to door to impound the LICENSED ones. Take the dogs from the responsible owners first. Way to go. The burden of proof will be put on the owners to prove whether their dog is even the breed that is being banned.
The one who bit a child was likely unlicensed, an un-neutered male, had a history of biting or unstable temperament, kept outside, and or was running at large. That dog that caused all this mayhem might have even disappeared. In reality that dog might have easily been a different breed all together. Dog bites get in the news if someone dies or a pit bull does it. The fact that eye-witnesses who might be able to tell apart a golden retriever and a greyhound are the proof I really doubt a lot of this news. if the dog bite wasn't by a pit bull half the time no one lists a breed at all, it also doesn't get on the first page of yahoo.
Two high profile bans happened in the last ten years in Colorado and Ontario. neither has cut down dog bites, but they've gotten plenty of press about them impounding and destroying dogs that haven't bitten people, and likely never would have. In both cases you have to prove your dog isn't a pit bull (since pit bull isn't a breed, and barely a type that sounds fishy.) If you don't they will come destroy it for you.
Then 10 - 12 years later these moronic laws get repealed because amazingly enough removing one breed of dog doesn't stop dog bites. The irresponsible owners just got a different dog and proceeded to care for it badly and let it bite people.