I read the rules and my question might be to general, if it is sorry, but here goes.
The ubiquity of weapons in history give the impression that people were subjected to violence quite a bit, is that so?
To be more specific about time and place focus on early modern Europe. I was looking at a book that had some great pictures of a rapier and dagger and it got me thinking. How common was the need of such a tool? Are they really for show? Did people really try stab each other to with these things on a regular basis? If so how frequently? These weapons were well made and therefore expensive. Does that mean only rich people participated? Were poor people better at conflict resolution or did they have equivalent weapons that didn't make it into collections?
A good starting place for this is:
Anglo, Sydney. The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
The short answer is that pre-modern Europe was a dangerous place and there was lots of violence between people of all social groups. However, as a general rule, bladed weapons (swords, daggers, polearms, etc.) were restricted to elites (variously defined in different places). In Spain, for example, only members of the hidalguia (nobility) could publically carry those weapons.
That said, all sorts of things were used as weapons in a pinch. For example a butcher's knife is bigger than a dagger but not restricted by the same laws. Awls, punches, other tools can cause a lot of damage and kill easily, too.