Then, Kirchner raised his arm. He pointed a finger like a gun, “made a recoil motion as if to suggest he had shot him,” as the Pennsylvania Superior Court described it — and ended up charged with criminal disorderly conduct as a result.

Now, after fighting the case for more than a year, a Pennsylvania state appeals court has upheld Kirchner’s conviction on the misdemeanor offense, ruling this week that the 64-year-old’s finger-gun pointing “served no legitimate purpose, and recklessly risked provoking a dangerous altercation.”

“We conclude that there was sufficient evidence that Kirchner’s act of mimicking his shooting Klingseisen created a hazardous condition,” Judge Maria McLaughlin wrote in the Tuesday opinion.