I've got that Crossman pistol, but in silver instead of black.
I don't know for sure, but I bet that it penetrates about 2" of flesh. I do know that with a fresh cannister and 2m range it penetrates a mouse (about 1"), with enough energy to flatten the (small) hp bullet against the floor. If kids are shooting other kids with this, it's kind of like stabbing someone with a pen. It's better than being stabbed with a knife, but it's still being stabbed.
And I have to agree, it's not a toy. In fact, I highly doubt that kids were shooting it at each other. I suspect it was shown along with toys that kids actually were shooting at each other. Having been a kid myself, not very long ago, we loved those little plastic pellet guns. there's no air, just the spring tension of pulling the trigger. They are as close to harmless as you can ever get (Except on the vaacuum cleaner that sucks up the hundreds of little yellow pellets).
As a kid we also had real pellet guns, and while we weren't safe by what I now know to be firearms safety standards, we were pretty close. and we still didn't do anything that could let anyone get in front of a gun.
There's a clear difference between them, and everyone knows it.
So my guess is this - the ice-cream trucks are selling the truly harmless toys, and they look like toys. For example of what the ice cream trucks are selling, the officer held up examples of the most realistic confiscated pellet guns they had in stock. The Crossman alone costs about $100, and no store in Canada sells them to kids (legal responsibilities).