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There is a “clear crisis” and “it needs to be dealt with” if the N.R.A. is to survive, he said.

Mr. North, who was recently installed as president, was the central figure in the Reagan-era Iran-contra affair and remains a hero to many on the right.

His announcement caught high-ranking members of the organization off guard, as well as members.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” one member asked a reporter on Saturday, outside a ballroom where the group was holding a meeting of its membership.

But Mr. LaPierre appeared to be fully in control of the group at the meeting, receiving healthy applause from the members during a speech that was heavily critical of two leading New York politicians that have been thorns in his group’s side: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and Attorney General Letitia James.

“He and his supporters will stop at nothing to advance his personal political agenda,” he said of Mr. Cuomo.

On Wednesday, Mr. North had asked Mr. LaPierre to resign. On Thursday, Mr. LaPierre, in a letter to the N.R.A.’s board, accused Mr. North of threatening to leak damaging information about him and other N.R.A. executives unless he stepped down.