[7] He left the U.S. to live in Chile first in 1996,[3] in protest of Bill Clinton's government due to its policies regarding taxation.

[7] In 2006, he ran for Congress in South Carolina's 4th congressional district as a member of the Libertarian party.

In 2012, along with three other Americans, he founded a libertarian compound in the Chilean mountainside, titled "Galt’s Gulch", named in honor of the fictional capitalist society represented in Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged.

[1] On November 10, 2019 he opened fire on Chilean demonstrators in Reñaca, Chile, wounding Luis Jesús Ahumada Villegas, a 33-year old protestor, in the leg.

[15] Due to this, he was convicted of attempted homicide and committing an unjustifiable shooting on public roads.

[12] Even though he claimed his actions were based on self-defense, the court rejected his explanation, commenting that "the requirements of legitimate defense are not met".