Yes, he did. Without solid research, it's far too easy for movies/TV/video games to get blamed for gun violence. It's a brilliant move as he's not saying if the NRA's claims that video games are to blame is true or not. He's just saying let's figure it out and go from there.

For the purposes of moving forward with the debate on gun safety, I think it's great to apply the scientific process and see what it says. Based on the results it may open up a rabbit hole around censorship, but at least we'll have some solid research to read on it. I suspect the initial research could point to follow up studies that would pinpoint specific factors that we as a society should be concerned about, rather than just "violence in video games".

I honestly have no idea what they'll find, but I'd wager that if there is a link that there are specific triggers or contextual combinations that make them a concern. The good news if that happens is that as an industry we can address those specific things rather than doing all out bans.