We had a real pit bull for a few years, He was honestly one of the nicest
dogs we have ever had, great around my Grandkids.
Now I would tell you that the statistics do support that they can be for lack of a better term Man killers, but seemingly not all are.
Years ago I had a Doberman, he was a huge Doby, over 90 lbs and was the gentlest thing, didn't have a mean bone in his body. He was stolen but I later recovered him. It was a long time before that dog wasn't terrified of his own shadow, people that stole him wanted him to be mean, to look at him, he was terrifying and they set out to make him mean and started beating him and tieing him up etc.
I have to think that a lot of Pit Bull owners want a mean, scary dog and set out to make them that way, and succeed.
Dogs probably more than any other animal will strive to please their owner.
Our Pit, we inherited, he was down at the road honestly guarding the trash can, My Son came back scared of him and I tried my best to scare him off. I even shot at him with a high powered rifle, he wouldn't leave so we ended up adopting him.
I gave him away as we will moving aboard soon. New owner got him for his young Son and I hear that they are inseparable.