It's been illegal in New York since 1845, due to some kind of violent conflict between landlords and tenant farmers. Some laws were targeted at the KKK, and newer laws were targeted at Occupy and Anonymous folks wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
This article[2] has a more complete list of state laws against masks, and where they've been overturned.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_law#United_States
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-states-where-prote...
That's overly fatalistic. China hasn't banned them for that reason, and they're way more interested in that rationale than any government you're likely talking about.
> It sucks that we even need to think about wearing masks to escape facial recognition.
Avoiding facial recognition isn't just about avoiding the government facial recognition.
The government did this long ago, as a reaction to the KKK wearing masks to intimidate their victims and hide their identity.
So it's actually already against the law to wear masks in public in many places in the US.
I've never heard of this law being enforced in modern times, however.
I challenge you to find an example of a blanket ban on all masks, that doesn't rely on other factors like threatening violence, rallying, intent to hide identity, or a respresenting specific gang design/color.
Otherwise you will be marginalized and the masses will be "educated" by the mass media about how evil and troublesome "you people are."
Ensuring diversity in information dissemination is absolutely key to shooting down these proposals which harm personal freedom.
It sucks that we even need to think about wearing masks to escape facial recognition.