“There was common sense sword control, of course.
“Don’t let peasants have swords. They will kill you in your sleep for gang-raping their daughters in front of them.”
That was the law, back then.”
Actually thru history there where attempts to keep weapons like swords and spears from peasants. The movie scenes where you see hoes, flails and scythes used by the peasants are not that inaccurate.
Touching scene in the end of the Samurai Trilogy, starring Toshiro Mifune, showed Miamoto Musashi (or was it Musashi Miamoto?) teaching the peasants how to fight with their farm implements and scavenged swords and spears against the bandits who plagued them. Peasants won.