Originally it was about all weapons, including swords and archery equipment. For example, Jews were prohibited from carrying any sort of arms (the accounts of the pogrom at York suggest we ignored the law, though the law meant we couldn’t train publicly in their use). Their are some medieval books, in Hebrew, on “fencing” which at the time referred to unarmed combat (similar to what is now called martial arts or krav maga). Originally only people of a certain class had the right to bear arms (meaning weapons you carried, catapults or ballisticas were never considered arms), and no in the US argues that the right to bear arms refers to anything larger than hand held personal weapons – though arguably the 2nd amendment also protects the right of the states to have a fully equipped militia, which all the states have decided is too expensive.
By the 18th century, however, firearms had become the standard weapons. Swords were mainly for “show”, and pikes were only of use in helping to direct the soldiers (the guns fired slowly, so it was important in battles to arrange formations so someone was always firing so the other guys couldn’t run up and stab you while you were reloading). Arguably by the late 18th century swords were still covered, but by the mid-19th century swords became totally obsolete (some armies still use them, but it usually resulted in the sword-carrying soldiers getting shot).