Spinoff question from dry fire thread...

I'm old school and have always been told to never dry fire any weapon unless you had a spent cartridge in the chamber for the firing pin to hit. Now my question is: When you store any weapon for a LONG time, is it better to dry fire the weapon and leave it that way? The reason being that the firing pin spring isn't compressed for years or a long time which will mean it is more likely to retain its spring tension. Before the boating accident I had long guns that had not been fired or chambered in 40 years. Does that long period of firing spring compression jeopardize the spring tension???