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INDIANAPOLIS – The President of the National Rifle Association, Oliver L. North, announced Saturday that he would not serve a second term as the gun rights group faced some of its worst troubles for years. struggling with an internal battle for his future.
North said he would not be renamed in a letter read on his behalf at the group's annual convention, where he and the insurgents of the organization had attempted to overthrow Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of Long's group date.
The struggle for power was likely to be resolved at the group's council meeting on Monday.
Behind her lies a growing crisis involving a legal battle between the N.R.A. and its most influential contractor, Ackerman McQueen, in the face of renewed threats from regulators in New York, where the N.R.A. is authorized to investigate the group's tax exemption status. With late contributions, N.R.A. also faces an increasingly well-financed arms control movement, motivated by a series of mass shootings.
In the statement read to members of the group, Mr. North said he felt a committee should be created to review the finances of the RNR.
There is a "clear crisis" and "it must be addressed" if the N.R.A. is to survive, he said.
Mr. North, who was recently elected president, was the central figure in the Iran-contra Reagan era and remains a hero to many on his right.
His announcement surprised senior members of the organization, as well as members.
"Can you tell me what's going on?", Asked a member of a journalist Saturday, in front of a ballroom where the group was organizing a meeting of its members.
But Mr. LaPierre seemed to have full control of the group at the meeting and was warmly applauded by the members in a very critical speech against two New York political leaders who were thorny at his side: Governor Andrew Mr. Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James.
"He and his supporters will stop at nothing to advance their 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 Board of Directors of N.R.A., accused Mr. North of threatening to disclose damaging information about himself and other members of the N.R.A. executives unless he has resigned.
"Last night, I was forced to confront one of these defining choices – the style used in extortionist jargon – as an offer I could not refuse," wrote LaPierre. "I refused it."
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