I love dogs and think that children and dogs (supervised) are great play mates.
Alas, as you say, it is the moron breeding dogs to be fierce and dangerous that we have a problem with. They have turned a brilliant little dog, the Staffie, into a dog with a bad reputation.
In Ireland there is a case of a dog called Lennox. He is a 'pit bull type' dog and is illegal, but he has not attacked or bitten anyone. He is to be put to sleep for who he is and what he might do -
http://www.savelennox.co.uk/
There is no easy solution to the problem of idiots with dangerous dogs - maybe just euthanising the idiots would be a good starting point. :-)