Systems and methods disclosed herein include preventing use of a Focal Plane Array (“FPA”) in a thermal imaging system if used in conjunction with a weapons-related activity by disabling the FPA in response to detecting one or more shock pulse events using accelerometers coupled with the thermal imaging system. The method includes monitoring an output from the one or more of the accelerometers to determine whether a shock pulse acceleration event has been detected that exceeds a predetermined threshold. The method also includes determining that a second acceleration event associated with the accelerometers exceeds a second predetermined threshold. The method further includes disabling the thermal imaging system in response to the detected acceleration events.