Conscripts and Soldiers were armed, that's not in debate, during war time people were often conscripted, armed, and trained, perhaps not with the best gear, but they were outfitted.
But during normal times, or for those not conscripted and left in the fields, this was not the case, though it did vary wildly by time and place.
In England in the 1100s, every freeman that owned land was expected to own armour and arms of their own, so that they could be called to become soldiers for the king, and the offside of this is that if you were not a member of the groups that were required to be armed in such a way then you were not allowed to be unless you were conscripted for war. This was Henry II's main method of trying to strengthen his own forces, while also trying to keep weapons out of the hands of the non-english populations of the isles.
In the late medieval Spain, only nobility and knights were allowed to carry or display swords openly, and although there were further ownership laws against the owning of swords, it was one of those laws that was only really enforced when people made a big deal of it, as long as you didn't walk around with your sword out or make a point of telling everyone you knew that you have one, it was usually fine. However, by that point laws were being passed to restrict the open carrying or even owning of weapons in general, not because of war, but because governments were attempting to reduce incidents of street violence or domestic violence involving weapons. This was also the case in france, until open carrying of swords and rapiers was finally flat out banned in the 1800s. And people began punching each other instead.
