I'm going to weigh in on this, since I have bred and owned various herps, both native and exotic, for nearly 50 years now, and that includes venomous and large Boids. I have also been very involved in breeding, showing, working and hunting dogs for just as long, and that includes American Pit Bull Terriers(the real ones, not the generic mongrels that often are referred to as "pit bulls" by the media and most everyone else).
We have to consider the source of all this legislation, all these bans and restrictions and whatnot, and that is the powerful and well-funded, well-organized Animal Rights movement, spearheaded by the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA and PETA. If you think these groups exist to save abused animals, think again. HSUS, the richest of the lot, with an annual "take" of over 200 MILLION dollars in donations, operates ZERO animal shelters, kills nearly every animal it "rescues", and is opposed to any and all breeding of any animal, for any reason. Their goal is to achieve a world in which animal use by humans is non-existent, and yet, they are all too willing to use deception to make you think that they are an "umbrella" organization that funds local animal shelters and rescues that save and find new homes for all those sad-eyed puppies and kitten in their commercials on tv. HSUS and all these other groups are adamantly opposed to the ownership and breeding of any and all reptiles. Banning large constrictors, or venomous, or even implementing a "permit" system is just a way of getting their foot in the proverbial door to achieving all-out bans, which is what they want to achieve, and anyone who actually believes that they will settle for bans only on certain species or for permits is being delusional. You do not know these groups very well, and have not spent time fighting them and researching them as I have. There is no satisfying them, not as long as humans still keep animals. Supporting a ban on any animals when you still own animals yourself is like throwing everyone else to a giant dragon, hoping it will eat you last, but the point is, it WILL eventually eat you!
Much of the hype about the damage to the environment and the risk of most of these reptiles establishing viable breeding populations anywhere in the US outside of south Florida is just that-hype. There have been many scientific and peer-reviewed studies which have proven that Burmese Pythons, Retics, etc. CANNOT survive and breed outside of the environment of southern Florida and are therefore no risk outside of that area. Florida has already taken measures to curtail the Burm population, so the Federal ban on the trade in the species in the other continental states was unnecessary and was simply capitulation to the AR groups in their continuing effort to utterly destroy the entire reptile industry. There is also considerable evidence that the Burm population in the Everglades is not so much due to "irresponsible owners" dumping unwanted pets, but to animals that escaped a breeding facility during Hurricane Andrew, a natural disaster, but the AR's can't go after natural disasters, can they?
The most detrimental threat to animal ownership, and the biggest boost to groups like HSUS and PETA, though, isn't money from well-meaning donations, but people who either believe that these bans will never affect them and their animals, or who think it's OK to ban/restrict OTHER people's animals, the ones they personally would not keep themselves. The AR's are winning, achieving not only bans on reptiles and other "exotic" animals, but they ARE implementing bans on breeding dogs and cats right and left, though Breed-Specific Legislation, through mandatory spay-neuter laws, through breeder "permits" that no one can get or comply with, though limits on how many pets you can own, period, regardless of species. As animal owners, if we don't all wake up to this and realize it's NOT about "the other guys and their animals", but that these groups are targeting ALL animals, from aquarium fish to livestock, there will be a day when some of you will live in a country where animal ownership is outlawed and where everyone is forced into a vegan lifestyle because there will be no other choices. I might not live long enough to see this, but many of you will, if things don't turn around soon. The AR groups are unified in what they want, if not exactly on how to achieve it, but we, as animal owners, are fragmented and divided and still all-too willing to throw each other under the proverbial bus. Too many of us still have that, "it's OK to ban THOSE animals, as long as you don't come after MINE" attitude, and that is why so many laws are being passed all over the country, at every level, that take away our RIGHT(yes, animals are property under the law, and as such, their ownership is guaranteed by the Constitution) to own animals, and we are allowing this to happen! It's not just about reptiles, or dogs, or horses, or cattle; it's about ALL animals, and we need to all realize that and realize that any victory for the HSUS and other AR groups is a defeat for all of US who keep, breed, sell, trade animals of any sort. You might not like large constrictors and would never want to own one, but when the USFW implemented their Rule Change to include four constrictor species in the Lacey Act, you lost, too, because that put those groups who want to eventually take away YOUR animals that much closer to doing so. Trust me, they will not be satisfied or placated.