Dismayed president delivers rebuke to those who blocked amendment and accuses senators of caving in to the gun lobby

A furious Barack Obama accused members of Congress of caving to the gun lobby on Wednesday after the best chance of reform in over a decade fell at the first hurdle.

Moderate Republicans and four Democrats bowed to pressure from the National Rifle Association and blocked a bipartisan Senate amendment that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases to gun shows and online sales.

Despite hopes that the national outrage which followed the Newtown school shooting would force Washington to act, a limited compromise amendment proposed by Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin received 54 votes, short of the 60 votes needed.

As the measure fell, Patricia Maisch, a survivor of the mass shooting in Tucson, shouted "Shame on you" from the visitors gallery where she was sitting near bereaved Newtown families.

Two other measures introduced in response to Sandy Hook – a ban on assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity magazines – also fell on Wednesday, as expected. NRA-backed Republican proposals to expand concealed carry rights nationally and focus law enforcement on prosecuting gun crime were also blocked.

After the vote, Obama delivered a stinging rebuke to the senators who blocked the proposals, and the National Rifle Association. "This is a pretty shameful day for Washington," he said.

In unusually forthright language, Obama said Republicans and the NRA had "wilfully lied" about the background check proposal. A minority of senators had decided it wasn't worth it to protect children's lives, Obama said in a statement in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Newtown parents.

"They blocked commonsense gun reform while these [Newtown] families looked on from the Senate gallery," he said.

Urging the public to pressure their representatives in Congress to act, Obama declared that he saw this as "round one" in the fight for reform. "I believe we are going to be able to get this done. Sooner or later, we are going to get this right."

Pam Simon, a survivor of the Tuscon shooting and a former assistant to Giffords, said she was particularly disappointed with moderate Republicans such as Arizona senator Jeff Flake, who voted against background checks but had previously voted in favour of the debate.

"We met with Jeff, who was a friend of Gabby's," Simon told the Guardian. "He has a poster in his office of Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and I would urge him to rewatch that movie and realise that it is his job to represent the people."

In Connecticut, state politicians voiced dismay. Democratic governor Dannel Malloy said the senators should be "ashamed of themselves", while state Republican house leader Lawrence Cafero said: "I just don't understand how you could vote no."

However, campaigners held on to some hope that the bill may return after Senate majority leader Harry Reid also voted against the amendment in a tactical measure to allow him to reintroduce the measure at a later date. "We have not given up hope," said Simon.

Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed at Sandy Hook, said: "We return home disappointed but not defeated."

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading advocate of gun control, was less optimistic. "Today's vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington," he said. "More than 40 US senators would rather turn their backs on the 90% of Americans who support comprehensive background checks than buck the increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby."

Opinion polls have consistently shown that a large majority of Americans support moderate gun control reform. A poll in February showed 92% to 7% in favour of background checks.

Democrat sponsors of the bill agreed that amendments would need 60 votes rather than the normal 50 to pass in order to avoid a filibuster from Republicans determined to block any legislation. Ultimately, the amendment received 54 votes with 46 against, including Reid's tactical nay-vote. Four other Democrats from conservative states voted against: Max Baucus, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor and Heidi Heitkamp.

Four Republicans voted in favour, but, crucially, 10 others who had been in favour of at least allowing a debate on the bill withdrew their support in the 48 hours leading up to a vote.

Opposition in Congress has been bolstered by fierce lobbying by the National Rifle Association, which raised record amounts of money in the months after Newtown to lobby politicians, and has threatened political retribution against any that voted for the Toomey-Manchin proposal.

The NRA welcomed the vote. "This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution," it said. "As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools."

Even if passed, the measure would have fallen far short of the package of reforms urged by Obama in the weeks after Newtown, which including restoring a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons and limiting the size of magazine clips.

Using executive orders, Obama was able to announce a few limited measures in January, such as new funding for research into violence, but anything lasting requires breaking through Republican opposition in Congress.

Some states, such as New York and Connecticut, have tightened gun laws in the wake of Newtown, but almost as many have acted to loosen them, according to a recent Wall Street Journal study, making it hard to achieve any national solution through state legislation.

Republican opponents of expanded background checks outlined alternative proposals on Wednesday which they said would target violent criminals rather than "hit the rights of law abiding citizens"

This rival amendment, which would have weakened gun control by allowing concealed guns to be transferred across state lines, received more votes (52 v 48) than the background check amendment.

Pat Toomey, the Republican architect of the failed compromise, who may now face political retribution in his home state of Pennsylvania, was sanguine: "It's not the outcome I hoped for, but the Senate has spoken and it's time to move on."

His proposal had sparked a fierce row between Republicans who were accused of deliberately mischaracterising the background check deal to scare voters.

Ted Cruz, a leading opponent of the bill, said: It [the bill] does not purport to create a gun registry but the only way to make expanded background checks effective is to make a registry, so the next step in the process would be to make the argument that you need a registry to make checks work."

"If you sell your shotgun on Craigslist you would have to go through Federal government background checks. The consequence is it increases the burden on private citizens and the cost."